Armed with a cream-colored $15 Target lunch box containing thousands of dollars’ worth of medication and needles, Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, went about her business in the nation's capital.
One day she was in the green room of ABC News' Washington studio, pinching her belly to prep the injection site before jabbing herself with a needle. Another day, she was standing at her kitchen counter saying “Welcome to my cooking show. Today we’re making eggs!” as she laid out the ingredients: vials filled with medication and syringes on a paper towel.
For two weeks in August, she publicly documented via social media the process of preserving her fertility by freezing her eggs.
"This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of
my life," she said on Instagram of her decision. In a follow-up post's caption: “Fertility is a loaded topic – from costs, privilege, and class to the why society casts judgment on virtually any choice or outcome a woman has in her life, no matter what that choice seems to be!"
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, who became the youngest woman to be elected to Congress in 2018 at age 29, has said that she has not ruled out a run for president in 2028. Polymarket, meanwhile, currently has her as the top Democratic contender.
The self-identified democratic socialist described the move to publicly share her fertility preservation journey as a “political risk."
Women seeking political office have long grappled with stigmas around motherhood, with many waiting to seek office once their children were grown. But AOC, as she’s popularly known, is changing the conversation around the reproductive choices of those seeking office – especially the highest office in the nation.
For Ocasio-Cortez, the move might turn out to be a plus, say gender and politics experts. A generational shift in how people perceive fertility and reproductive choices can make her decisions appear more relatable and appeal to younger voters, the thinking goes. And it's not just women on the left who are supporting her choice.
“For millennial women like AOC, conversations around freezing your eggs, surrogacy, postponing childbirth until your 40s, adoption, there's a whole lot of conversations that are happening in public for this generation of women,” said Nadia Brown, chair of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University. “So AOC is keeping in line with that, knowing that the base of her supporters are typically younger voters, they are college-educated voters and these are people who this comment would make sense for.”
Appealing to younger voters is something Democrats need to urgently do, according to the Democratic National Committee's autopsy of why the party lost the 2024 election, released in May. It pointed to a “huge drop-off in both turnout and Democratic support among young voters aged 18-29.”
Discussions around motherhood and reproductive autonomy might be topics that are increasingly common in various employment sectors, but doing so while running for president would be the last frontier, because “to date, all 47 presidents have been men,” Brown said.
Ocasio-Cortez's choice drew both derision and praise from GOP commentators.
Matt Walsh, a conservative political commentator, called the move “totally backwards and ridiculous.”
"This desire to start having children late in life is completely baffling to me,” he wrote on X.
Walsh's post immediately drew criticism from fellow Republican commentator Alexa Henning, who served as chief of staff to former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and has held communications roles in the Trump White House and his presidential campaigns.
“Conservative men dunking on AOC for freezing her eggs, is not a winning message with women voters,” she wrote on X. “I have many conservative friends who because they decided to put careers first froze their eggs and had have babies and families later in life. That should be celebrated.”
A 2025 UCLA Health research study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that the number of planned elective egg freezing cycles nearly quadrupled between 2014 and 2021, increasing from 4,153 to 16,436. By 2023, that number climbed to more than 39,000.
When it comes to in vitro fertilization (IVF) access, there is broad support across party lines. A Pew research study conducted in April 2024 of 7,166 registered voters found that 73% of all voters – including majorities of supporters of former President Joe Biden (83%) and Trump supporters (64%) – said IVF access is a good thing.
Historically, most women ran for Congress only after their children were grown. Even today, dads of minors are overrepresented, while moms of minors are dramatically underrepresented in Congress, according to Vote Mama Foundation, which provides research and analysis on the political participation of mothers.
In the 119th Congress, 23% of members are fathers of minor children, compared with 15% of U.S. adults. Just 7% of members, or 39 lawmakers, are mothers of minor children, compared with 18% of U.S. adults, according to Vote Mama.
Why it's hard for mothers running for office
The issue of motherhood has always been a complex one for women running for office, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. While fatherhood bestows a caring persona on a male candidate, for women, the candidacy is often seen through a lens of family responsibility.
“If you didn't have children, that was a red flag, with people wondering ‘is she not straight?’” Walsh said. “And if you did have children, that was a problem because who was going to take care of your children? Then you were a bad mother.”
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont, has dealt with that scrutiny.
When launching her early political career – running for state Senate in 2014 – she received an anonymous postcard in the mail telling her that she should be staying home with her kids and not running for political office.
"The anonymous writer went on to say that I was going to seriously regret my choice, and I could never get that time back," she told USA TODAY. "This was the first indication to me that my personal family life and our family decisions would now be up for public discussion and criticism. My male colleagues never received this scrutiny, and there was never an assumption that their family decisions were open for public debate." Given that men don't have to contend with a biological ticking clock like women do, parenthood becomes a calculus that women are frequently forced to navigate, balancing professional ambition and personal identity.
“I think for women, you're damned if you do [have small children], you're damned if you don't,” Brown said. “And so you might as well carve out the life that you want.”
Both former female Democratic presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, were past child-rearing responsibilities when they ran for the highest office. Both, however, leaned into their maternal roles. Clinton's campaign materials featured her as a grandmother, with her daughter Chelsea on the campaign trail. Harris, a stepmother of two in their 20s at the time, spoke about her involvement in raising them and the "Momala" nickname she'd been given by them.
The fertility rate in the United States dropped to a historic low in 2025, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts cite a range of reasons, including delays in marriage, more women entering the workforce, economic uncertainty and an absence of supportive family policies.
Fertility in women decreases gradually but significantly at age 32 and rapidly after 37, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So for women delaying childbirth, access to assisted reproductive technology – of which IVF is considered to be the most effective – becomes a crucial part of the journey to motherhood.
Choosing when and how to become a parent is one of the most deeply personal decisions a person can make, making Ocasio-Cortez being open about freezing her eggs massively impactful, said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder and CEO of Vote Mama Foundation.
“She is talking about it specifically because so many women go through this process in isolation, and she is working to break down that stigma and shame,” Grechen Shirley said. “Watching AOC’s videos reminds me why we do the work that we do – because we deserve leaders who are willing to talk about the things that for too long have been labeled ‘women’s issues’ and pushed aside as though they are less important.”
Normalizing motherhood in elected office and taking control
The government should take steps to normalize motherhood in elected office, Grechen Shirley said.
In 2025, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, pushed for bipartisan legislation along with Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-California, and Brittany Pettersen, D-Colorado, allowing new mothers and fathers to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks around the birth or adoption of a child. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, opposed the measure, calling it unconstitutional. The effort, which had major bipartisan support, was abandoned in favor of vote pairing, an informal arrangement where an absent lawmaker coordinates with an opposing lawmaker who agrees to abstain or withhold their vote.
“I am deeply grateful for Rep. Luna for championing the changes needed to ensure that moms and dads who are welcoming a new child are able to represent their constituents,” Pettersen posted on X. “When the Speaker refused to act, she continued working to make the House a more welcoming place for families. But the reality is – this outcome does not address the barriers we’ve fought so hard to overcome.”
By freezing her eggs, Ocasio-Cortez is stripping away the control that the current culture and administration is asserting over women, said Carol Evans, founder of Working Mother Media, who helped launch Working Mother magazine.
“Women have less rights than they had half a century ago,” said Evans, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
“Women are fighting back, and freezing eggs to keep options open is one action that can help,” she said. “Of course, AOC can run for senator or president and decide when or if to start a family.”
Balint couldn't agree more.
"When you’re a woman in elected office, everyone feels entitled to tell you how you should be navigating family decisions. This just doesn’t happen for men," she said. "We all need to be better at naming it and shining a light on the double standard. I don’t want our daughters and granddaughters to face the same ridiculous scrutiny.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How AOC is upending norms around motherhood and political candidacy
