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AOC freezes her eggs, mixing her personal life with politics
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Aug 13, 2026
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By
Brigid Bergin
Published Aug 13, 2026
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez created a buzz when she detailed her plans to freeze her eggs on social media over the weekend. She told people not to get weird about it, but the news triggered lots of feelings.
It hit home for me. I found out I was finally pregnant just a few days before I met Ocasio-Cortez for our first interview back in September 2017. After two years and three attempts at in vitro fertilization, I was walking around a park in Corona on a steamy Sunday with the then 28-year-old candidate, nervous about my very new news. And I definitely was not talking about it.
Nine months later, Ocasio-Cortez shocked the world with her primary win. I watched the returns on NY1 from my couch while holding a 3-week-old baby in my arms. Ocasio-Cortez went on to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, cultivating a unique bond with voters far beyond her congressional boundary.
The now 36-year-old congressmember’s decision to freeze her eggs — and her willingness to share it publicly — marks another milestone in her personal and political evolution. As someone who lived her young adult life in the public eye, Ocasio-Cortez said she was making a choice that gave her more options, even as it provoked speculation about her motivations (“she’s running?”) and her personal life (“she’s single?”).
“ I'm aware that just by me choosing to not keep this private, there may be a consequence. But you know what? I'm OK with that,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a story pinned to her Instagram page, which has 9.6 million followers. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life and if people want to make assumptions about my decision, let them make those assumptions. I feel empowered to make this choice.”
Ocasio-Cortez is not the first lawmaker to publicly document her reproductive decisions. Last September, California Rep. Sarah Jacobs’ decision to freeze her eggs, also at the age of 36, was detailed in The New York Times. Jacobs’ experience prompted her to work with Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth to push for expanded coverage of fertility treatments for military families.
Republicans have so far blocked their efforts. But having lawmakers in office who are dealing firsthand with these same thorny fertility questions means the policy debates aren’t going away.
“It matters that you personally understand just how hard this is,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something, a nonprofit that recruits and supports young people running for local office across the country.
Litman said the format of Ocasio-Cortez’s story, where she goes step by step through the process of preparing her medication, giving herself injections and reporting on how her body is responding, serves as a reminder of AOC’s fluency on the Internet.
“ This is the vocabulary that people speak,” Litman said, “Like let me show you my syringes. Let me show you how this medicine works. Doing the sort of ASMR fingernails tapping on the bottle.”
AOC said she saved up for the procedure and will be paying “100% out of pocket,” estimating it will run about $9,000. She’s working with a clinic in the city that caters to women who are paying out of pocket, since her current high-deductible insurance plan covers none of it.
There are a range of options available for fertility care in New York and most are very expensive. Data compiled by FertilityiQ, an online platform that compiles data and user feedback on providers, found the average cost per egg freezing cycle in New York City is upwards of $17,000, the highest price of major American cities.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide Melissa De Rosa worked to expand access to fertility treatments at the state level after going through her own experience with multiple egg freezing cycles. She said her former husband’s insurance at the time covered her costs, but her own experience with the process and the toll it takes on the mind, body and pocketbook prompted her to make it a political priority.
Now New York state requires certain fully insured health plans to cover three rounds of IVF. De Rosa said the law still does not go as far as she would like, but it’s one of her accomplishments in government that she remains proud of to this day.
“ I think more high-profile women should be talking about these things,” De Rosa said. “It helps normalize the conversation.”
De Rosa, who is critical of democratic socialists and the leftist movement that propelled Ocasio-Cortez to power, gave the lawmaker credit for pushing that fertility conversation forward
“ My hat is off to her, because it's also not necessarily an easy thing to do to put your personal life out there,” De Rosa said.
AOC has not said what she plans to do about her personal or political ambitions. But she is sending clear signals that whatever she decides, she will share it.
“We're going to take our power back,” said AOC, “and we have to talk about it.”
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This week in New York politics
- A sharp drop in literacy scores among New York City students on state tests has landed like a bombshell in the education world, prompting some to question the exams' accuracy.
- A Democratic official in Millburn, New Jersey, is accusing a local Republican leader of filing a false police report against him in an episode that shows just how divisive the township's politics have become.
- A Staten Island judge temporarily blocked New York City’s pied-à-terre tax rollout on luxury second homes after a group of property owners sued.
- New York state's recycling data is garbage, according to a new report by the state comptroller.
- Staten Island’s flag could soon become official under New York City law, with a vote set for this Thursday.
- A group of Harlem residents and local politicians have sued to block a city-approved plan to tear down the Heritage Health Care Center and build affordable apartments.
- New York lawmakers are proposing to lift a decades-old ban that shuttered the city's LGBTQ+ bathhouses.
- A group hoping to bring open primaries to New York City is taking the fight to court after the city clerk and Board of Elections thwarted the group’s effort to bring the issue to voters.
- A bitter, decadelong dispute over the future of Elizabeth Street Garden, a city-owned lot turned popular-community greenspace, may officially be coming to an end.
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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