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AOC recalls thanking God she had the choice to get an abortion when she took a pregnancy test after being raped

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol December 8, 2021, in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

  • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she feels grateful she could have had an abortion after being raped.
  • The New York lawmaker told the story of her sexual assault at a New York City protest Friday.
  • “Thank god I have, at least, a choice,” she recalled thinking during a pregnancy test.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday shared a personal sexual assault story during a pro-abortion rights rally, saying she felt grateful she had the freedom to obtain an abortion if she needed one in that moment. 

“I myself, when I was about 22 or 23 years old, was raped while I was living here in New York City,” she told a crowd in New York’s City Union Square Park. “I was completely alone. I felt completely alone. In fact, I felt so alone that I had to take a pregnancy test in a public bathroom in midtown Manhattan.”

“When I sat there waiting for what the result would be, all I could think was thank God I have, at least, a choice,” she continued. “Thank God I could, at least, have the freedom to choose my destiny.”

She added, “I didn’t know then, as I was waiting, that it would come up negative.”

“But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter and that this is for all of us. This is not a women’s rights issue. This is an issue for all of us.”

 

—Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 25, 2022

Ocasio-Cortez gave the remarks the same day the Supreme Court voted to overturn 5-4 Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion a constitutional right nationwide. 

The decision has led to backlash and the eruption of protests nationwide. In the hours since the decision was made public, a slew of prominent individuals from musician Jack White to lawmakers, such as Ocasio-Cortez, have blasted the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Justice Department condemned it, saying on Friday that it’s a “devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States.”

Since May, abortion-rights advocates have feared that the Supreme Court would strike down Roe v. Wade. The fears began when Politico published a leaked draft opinion in which Associate Justice Samuel Alito called the decision “egregiously wrong from the start.”

Abortion, however, remained legal in the United States until the court handed down the final verdict. But the draft itself was enough to put reproductive rights activists and doctors who perform abortions on edge.

By overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has put the question of the legality of abortion in the hands of individual state legislatures and has essentially made it illegal in at least 22 states to obtain an abortion. There are expected to be added restrictions in several others.

“We must start right now to be relentless to restore and guarantee all of our rights here in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez urged the crowd during her Friday speech.

 


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