Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is taking digital followers on her journey to freeze her eggs and conservatives were quick to ridicule it. The White House really wants them to stop.
The conservative right responded with attacks after the Democratic lawmaker posted behind-the-scenes footage of her egg freezing journey. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh called later-in-life pregnancy “totally backward and ridiculous” in a post on X.
“If she got pregnant now, it would technically be a geriatric pregnancy," Walsh posted. "Instead she’s freezing her eggs. This desire to start having children late in life is completely baffling to me. I’ll have kids in their 20s by the time I turn 50. AOC apparently wants to have a toddler at that age."
Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point USA who has been hosting The Charlie Kirk Show, similarly bashed AOC for freezing her eggs and making it public.
“This is not female ‘liberation,’ it’s a cautionary tale,” he claimed on X. “This is the message progressives spread when it comes to family formation, and one of the reasons why fertility rates are cratering. Just freeze your eggs, kids! Pursue that career, even if you’ve been engaged for 4 years to a man you’ve known since college.”
Conservative podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey attacked Ocasio-Cortez for "glamorizing the lie that women can have it all. You can't. Biology is real and how you order your life makes or breaks your future."
Conservatives, particularly religious ones, have spent the past few years calling on young people to have more children. Over the decades, a crashed economy, the pandemic, inflation and the high costs of housing, child care and school loans have put the Millennial and Gen Z generations in a difficult financial spot, Newsweek reported last year. Now, conservatives appear to want to dictate when families should be having children.
Axios reported that the White House really wants the right to stop talking about Ocasio-Cortez's eggs.
"Conservative men dunking on AOC for freezing her eggs is not a winning message with women voters," replied Alexa Henning, a MAGA consultant who recently left the State Department.
"I have many conservative friends who, because they decided to put careers first, froze their eggs and had babies and families later in life," she added. "That should be celebrated."
For most people who can't afford to freeze their eggs, having children simply isn't an option.
"We most certainly want to encourage more women and families to have children, period," a senior White House official told Axios. "That's a diplomatic way of saying, 'Yes, the Matt Walsh messaging is not helpful.'"
"This isn't really a winner for Republicans," said one Trump adviser. They added that the midterms were mere months away.
Early on in her career, AOC did an interview with CNN's Dana Bash where she talked about being a parent and having children and the congresswoman made it clear that she wanted to hold off because she wanted to be "present" in the child's life. That's not currently an option for a member of Congress.
Katie Miller, spouse of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, also took AOC's side, saying that those who want to increase the birth rate "can't be a purist about how it happens. The most efficient way to have babies is the old-fashioned way: Get married, have children young."
Since the elimination of Roe v. Wade, many male internet influencers and politicians, like New Jersey state Sen. Edward Durr, a Republican, have argued, "A woman does have a choice! Keep her legs closed."
Six years later, alt-pop and indie singer-songwriter Val Merza wrote on Facebook, "Women started keeping their legs closed, just as men wished. Now men are bothered by the high number of childfree women and the low birth rate."