AOC recalls thanking God she had the choice to get an abortion when she took a pregnancy test after being raped

  • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she felt grateful she could've had an abortion after being raped.

  • The lawmaker told the story of her sexual assault Friday at a protest Friday in New York City.

  • "Thank God I have, at least, a choice," she recalled thinking during a pregnancy test.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday shared a personal sexual-assault story during an abortion-rights rally, saying she felt grateful she had the freedom to obtain an abortion if she needed one in that moment.

"I myself, when I was about 22 or 23 years old, was raped while I was living here in New York City," she told a crowd in New York's City Union Square Park. "I was completely alone. I felt completely alone. In fact, I felt so alone that I had to take a pregnancy test in a public bathroom in midtown Manhattan."

"When I sat there waiting for what the result would be, all I could think was thank God I have, at least, a choice," she continued. "Thank God I could, at least, have the freedom to choose my destiny."

She added: "I didn't know then, as I was waiting, that it would come up negative."

"But it doesn't matter," she said. "It doesn't matter and that this is for all of us. This is not a women's rights issue. This is an issue for all of us."

Ocasio-Cortez gave the remarks the same day the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion a constitutional right in the US.

While abortion opponents rejoiced, the decision has sparked protests nationwide, and a slew of prominent people including the musician Jack White as well as lawmakers such as Ocasio-Cortez have blasted the decision. The Justice Department condemned it, saying on Friday that it's a "devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States."

Concern by abortion-rights advocates that the Supreme Court might strike down Roe v. Wade were heightened in May when Politico published a leaked draft majority opinion in which Justice Samuel Alito called the Roe decision "egregiously wrong from the start."

Now, by overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has put the question of the legality of abortion in the hands of state legislatures and has essentially made it illegal in at least 22 states to obtain an abortion. There are expected to be added restrictions in several others.

"We must start right now to be relentless to restore and guarantee all of our rights here in the United States of America," Ocasio-Cortez urged the crowd during her Friday speech.

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