Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) took to social media to share the first steps of her efforts to freeze her fertility and continue to put children on hold at the age of 36. She asked viewers not to be "weird" about it and said that it made her feel "empowered." The reactions were swift.

Key Takeaways:

• AOC has started freezing her eggs, something she previously said she would consider.

• She is 36, which is considered "advanced maternal age," and she has been engaged for more than four years.

• While some social media users supported her efforts, others urged her to get married and have children now; others warned her that egg freezing does not guarantee pregnancy and children in the future.

The Details:

It was nearly six years ago that AOC first hinted that she might freeze her eggs. Now it's clear she has started the process, which she says helps her "feel more in control" and "like a badass."

There are plenty of opportunities for speculation — and social media users definitely did.

But beyond that, there are serious medical and ethical concerns associated with egg freezing, IVF, and surrogacy. Whether or not AOC is gearing up for a 2028 presidential run doesn't change any of that.

Commentary:

Live Action president and founder Lila Rose responded to AOC's video on X, writing, "It’s not 'badass.' It puts you and your future babies at higher risk. It necessitates IVF, which is extremely dangerous for children and has led to millions of babies being destroyed or frozen. Stop normalizing egg freezing. Get married and be open to new life."

Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey made similar points, writing, "She's been with the same guy for years. There is no reason she couldn't have kids yet." She pointed out that pregnancy for AOC would now require IVF and potentially surrogacy. Stuckey also said that freezing your eggs is not healthy and that it's difficult for a woman to get pregnant after 40, even if she has frozen her eggs, because pregnancy success also depends on uterine health and hormonal balance.

Egg freezing offers no guarantees of a future pregnancy or live birth.

AOC was just 30 when she first spoke about egg freezing, but now, she has entered the age at which she would be considered "geriatric" if she were to become pregnant. Cleveland Clinic defines "advanced maternal age" as women who are 35 or older and pregnant.

One Facebook user wrote:

Thomas Sowell famously said, "There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs."

Modern technology keeps promising us otherwise.

Technology tells us that we can control everything. We can have sex without babies. We can have babies without sex. We can postpone fertility until it is convenient. We can freeze eggs. We can do IVF. We can hire surrogates. We can schedule conception around our careers.

We can become sovereign over our own biology.

Except we can't.

There are still trade-offs.

Those trade-offs, he said, include fertility decline with age, and a decline in egg quantity and quality. "No amount of money or planning changes that curve. It is simply how the body works," he wrote. (And he took a great deal of flack from commenters who didn't feel that a man should be voicing such an opinion.)

Women who harvest their eggs are put on drugs — often Lupron — which suppress a woman’s normal ovarian function so fertility doctors can time when her eggs are released. (This drug is also used to chemically castrate sex offenders.) She is then put on fertility drugs to increase egg production and then a trigger shot of HCG (Human chorionic gonadotrophin), a hormone produced by the placenta, to release the eggs from the follicles. A needle is used to puncture the ovaries multiple times to suction out the eggs. This can carry complications of internal bleeding or even the loss of an ovary.

In addition, a smaller percentage of these eggs is likely to be "normal," which could lead to embryos that test "abnormal" and are destroyed. In addition, it could mean the woman goes through more than one round of egg harvesting and hormone injections, increasing her risk of complications.

The Bottom Line:

Egg harvesting, IVF, and surrogacy all carry significant risks and ethical dilemmas. No one is being "weird" to acknowledge the facts.