Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was roundly mocked on Twitter for using the term “menstruating person” instead of women in a recent interview attacking Texans, and pro-lifers at large, during an interview on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“I find Governor Abbott’s comments disgusting, and I think there’s twofold. One, I don’t know if he is familiar with a menstruating person’s body. In fact, I do know that he’s not familiar with a female or a menstruating person’s body, because if he did, he would know that you don’t have six weeks, is that quote, unquote six weeks, and I’m sorry we have to break down biology 101 on national television, but in case no one has informed him before in his life, six weeks pregnant means two weeks late for your period. And two weeks late on your period for any person, any person with a menstrual cycle can happen if you’re stressed, if your diet changes, or for really no reason at all. So you don’t have six weeks. That’s first things first.”
She continued.
“None of this is about supporting life. What this is about is controlling women’s bodies and controlling people who are not cisgender men. This is about making sure that someone like me as a woman or any menstruating person in this country cannot make decisions over their own body,” the New York Democratic Socialist said Tuesday.
“So when we talk about the law that was passed in Texas, we know that anti-choice bills are not about being pro-life, because if they were about being pro-life, then the Republican party would support, frankly, an agenda that helps guaranteed healthcare, that helps ensure that people who do give birth that don’t have the resources to care for a child can have that care for a child.”
Full transcript here.
Conservative radio host Dana Loesch tweeted “Hard to argue that this is an attack on women when you simultaneously abort their existence with “menstruating person.”
Outkick founder Clay Travis discussed the interview on his podcast with Buck Sexton. “It’s mind-blowing how broken the logic is for people like #AOC. And you can even hear her in her head thinking about — instead of just saying ‘woman’, she’s thinking ‘menstruating person,’” Travis said.
Daily Wire reporter Michael Knowles also joked “In the spirit of compromise, I’m fine with an exception to the law for all ‘menstruating persons.’”
Cortez was undeterred.
“Trans men & non-binary people can also menstruate,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, along with a screenshot of a Daily Mail headline that said: “AOC calls women ‘menstruating people’ while explaining the female body.”
“Some women also *don’t* menstruate for many reasons, including surviving cancer that required a hysterectomy. GOP mad at this are protecting the patriarchal idea that women are most valuable as uterus holders,” she continued.
