By Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
This month marks two years since the catastrophic Dobbs decision. Two years since our rights were seized by the most corrupt Supreme Court in United States history.
But we will have our day. We will tell our story. And we will have the right to choose — not just over our bodies, but at the ballot box too.
We all have our own story of choice. Whether you have a child, whether you don’t, whether you struggle to or cannot conceive — every single one of us has our story of deciding what we want for our lives.
I want to share with you my family’s story of choice.
When my mom was 26 years old, she had just recently moved from Puerto Rico to NYC shortly after marrying my dad.
Both of my parents grew up in extraordinary poverty. In The Bronx, they lived in a 1-bedroom apartment, and dreamed of building a life — a better life — and a family together one day.
One day, my mom walked into a Planned Parenthood for an exam. And the clinic worker pulled up an ultrasound to show her that she was, in fact, pregnant. And it was in that clinic — looking at that screen, taking stock of everything before her and what she wanted — that my mom chose me.
But it was her choice. Not a court’s. Not a lobbyist’s. Not a politician’s. It was hers.
Over 20 years later, I then had my own story of choice.
I was very blessed with a loving childhood. My family didn’t have a lot, but we had each other. But after years of my family working tirelessly, tragedy struck.
My dad was diagnosed with a very rare form of lung cancer when I was in high school. He didn’t smoke, and it confounded the doctors. And a few, short years later, he passed away. Overnight, my mom became a single mother of two. We did the best we could, but without my dad, we couldn’t afford to keep our house much longer.
I started waitressing around this time, to make ends meet. I could pick up double shifts and scrap as much as I could, to do what I needed to do. And it was around this time that I experienced sexual assault.
I never told anyone. It was the biggest secret of my life. I was terrified, confused, disgusted, depressed. But I still clocked in every day, with a smile that working in hospitality demands.
But I was alone. I was completely alone.
And I was ‘late’.
Absolutely overwhelmed, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a pregnancy test, and I pulled out the cash tips from my bag from the night before in order to pay for it.
With my hands shaking around the instructions and the stick, I took the test. And set the timer to 3 minutes. And those 3 minutes transformed my life.
Many of you have had to wait those 3 minutes. You know it transforms yours, too.
I was absolutely terrified at what lay before me. I was wrestling with the trauma of the event that led me to that place, just weeks prior, that I would not be ready to tell anyone about for years.
But most importantly in those 3 minutes, one crystal clear, beaming thought rang through: Thank God I have a choice. I am so grateful that I get to choose. After so much that was beyond my control — the medical bills for my dads cancer, losing our family house after losing him, the violation of my own consent — at least in this, I had agency.
And while I didn’t know what I would choose in that moment, I knew that the choice itself would be mine, and mine alone. Not a court’s. Not a lobbyist’s. Not a politician’s. And certainly not Donald Trump’s.
When that 3 minute timer rang up, I pulled out that test. And it was negative. That was one choice that I did not end up having to make.
If I did, it would have been past the time of these 6-week abortion bans rolling across the country as we speak.
But I did make one choice that day: in those 3 minutes, I decided that for the rest of my life, I would stand up for reproductive freedom and justice for all people in this country.
I know, sadly due to the prevalence of assault, that there are many who have similar stories. Perhaps you haven’t even told anyone yet. And many may share entirely different ones. But the one thing that binds us today is the understanding that reproductive freedom is an inviolable human right. And we must stop at nothing until it is established and codified as the law of the land.
The next battleground is in November. It’s in defeating Donald Trump and reelecting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
And we cannot stop there.
It’s also in electing an overwhelmingly Democratic House and Senate. It’s in chasing corruption out of our courts and our politics. And we will succeed.
Every single one of us has our story of choice: of looking at a crossroads and deciding how we want to proceed; of taking control of our own lives.
Whether it’s contraception, IVF, abortion, family planning, or any or none of the above — these are our essential freedoms that unlock agency over our lives. And it is up to us to defend, restore, and codify them as the law of this land.
They have given us no other choice but to win.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has served as the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congressional district since 2019.