Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezis getting candid about her own experience in the fight for reproductive rights.
The New York Congresswoman, 32, opened up about being sexually assaulted during a rally Friday in Manhattan, following theSupreme Court’s decision to overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wadeand the constitutional right to abortion.
“I took friends and I supported friends through abortions, when I had friends that were sexually assaulted, right after getting off of work,” she recalled. “I myself, when I was about 22 or 23 years old, was raped while I was living here in New York City. I was completely alone, I felt completely alone.
Abortion rights activists protesting in the wake of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 25, 2022 in Washington, D.C.Anna Moneymaker/Getty
“In fact, I felt so alone that I had to take a pregnancy test in a public bathroom in Midtown Manhattan. And when I sat there waiting for what the result would be, all I could think was, ‘Thank God I have, at least, a choice. Thank God I could at least have the freedom to choose my destiny.’ I didn’t know then as I was waiting that it would come up negative. But it doesn’t matter … This is for all of us. This is not a women’s rights issue, this is an issue for all of us!” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Ocasio-Cortez then called on PresidentJoe Bidento take action and open abortion clinics on federal lands in red states.
Friday’s6-to-3 rulingreversed nearly 50 years of precedent, giving states the power to pass their own laws around abortion. Since the decision, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and South Dakota have alreadybanned abortion in their states, afterputting “trigger bans” in placethat governors enacted after the SCOTUS ruling.
RELATED VIDEO: Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Eliminating the Constitutional Right to Abortion
source: people.com
