Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has joined the chorus of Democrats in speaking out against the recent enactment of several state-level abortion laws, claiming they are about “owning women” and establishing a U.S. theocracy.
“Abortion bans aren’t just about controlling women’s bodies. They’re about controlling women’s sexuality. Owning women,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier Thursday morning. “From limiting birth control to banning comprehensive sex ed, US religious fundamentalists are working hard to outlaw sex that falls outside their theology.”
In a follow-up tweet, the 29-year-old freshman congresswoman contended that measures criminalizing the killing of infants expose that a woman’s right to receive an abortion “threatens a core element underpinning right-wing ideology: patriarchy.”
“It’s a brutal form of oppression to seize control of the 1 essential thing a person should command: their own body,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came hours after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the Human Life Protection Act into law, one of the country’s strictest anti-abortion laws. “Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature,” Ivey said upon signing the law Wednesday. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.”
Late Tuesday evening, the Alabama State Senate passed the measure by a vote of 25-6. The law provides no exemptions for cases of rape and incest. and is due to take effect six months after the governor’s signature. “Liberty Counsel, a non-profit litigation firm, noted the bill reclassifies abortion as a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison for abortionists. Women who undergo an abortion, however, “will not be criminally liable,” Breitbart News reporter Dr. Susan Berry writes.
Ocasio-Cortez has not only been critical of Alabama’s abortion law but of bills passed in states such as Georgia and Ohio, as well. Of Georgia’s recently enacted “heartbeat” law, she said: “Most of the men writing these bills don’t know the first thing about a woman’s body outside of the things they want from it,” before contending the measure is a “backdoor ban.”