AOC* unscrambles the myths, fears,
and unknowns about egg
harvesting and freezing.
Eight years ago, waiting tables,
she could not have considered
this American luxury—
a benefit covered as health care
served mostly free to all women in France.
In each video she posts to social media,
AOC speaks from the heart,
with no notes,
as she sets out her medication vials,
fills each syringe,
and plunges the essential brews
into her belly.
She’s exhibit A in her resolve
to avoid aproning over weeks of cringy jabs,
painful bloating, and an uncertain harvest.
She’s sharing the recipe
for expanding childbearing
choices and years.
Her openness and folksy banter
have stirred up interest,
perhaps the demand
to whisk away barriers and costs.
Has AOC become the Julia Child
of egg retrieval and freezing?
She needs no soufflé!
*Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. Representative for New York
Elane Gutterman is a health researcher, whose poems have been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize. Her first book of poetry, Tides of Expectation, was published in 2022 (Kelsay Books). A number of young women she knows and loves have frozen their eggs—she is grateful to AOC for her courage, activism, and moving explanations.