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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she is grateful she was able to have an abortion after being raped.
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The New York lawmaker told the story of her sexual assault during a protest in New York City on Friday.
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“Thank God at least I have a choice,” she recalled during a pregnancy test.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a personal story about sexual assault at a pro-abortion rights rally Friday, saying she was grateful she had the freedom to have an abortion if she needed it at the time.
“I myself was raped when I was about 22 or 23 years old while living here in New York City,” she told a crowd in New York’s City Union Square Park. “I was all alone. I felt all alone. In fact, I felt so alone that I had to take a pregnancy test in a public bathroom in downtown Manhattan.”
“As I sat there waiting to see what the outcome would be, all I could think about was that thank goodness I at least have a choice,” she continued. “Thank goodness I could at least have the freedom to choose my destiny.”
She added: “I didn’t know at the time, as I was waiting, that it would come out negative.”
“But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter and that is for all of us. This is not an issue of women’s rights. This is an issue for all of us.”
Ocasio-Cortez gave the comments the same day the Supreme Court voted 5-4 against overthrow Roe v. Wadethe landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion a constitutional right nationwide.
The decision has sparked backlash and the eruption of protests nationwide† In the hours since the decision was made public, killed from prominent individuals from musician Jack White to lawmakers, such as Ocasio-Cortez, have overturned the decision to undo Roe v. Wade. the Ministry of Justice convicted it, saying it is a “devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States.”
Since May, abortion rights advocates fear the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. The fears started when Politico leaked design advice in which Associate Justice Samuel Alito called the decision “extremely wrong from the outset.”
However, abortion remained legal in the United States until the court made the final decision. But the draft itself was enough to stop reproductive rights activists and doctors performing abortions on the edge†
By overthrowing Roe, the Supreme Court has left the issue of abortion legality in the hands of individual state legislators and essentially made it illegal in at least 22 states to obtain an abortion. It is expected that added restrictions in several others.
“We must now begin to relentlessly restore and guarantee all our rights here in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez urged during her Friday address.
Read the original article Business Insider