Rep. AOC suggests outlawing abortion will make workers ‘easier to exploit’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) argued Thursday that the right to abortion should be treated as an economic issue.

Ocasio Cortez said that policies that force women to have children will also force them into the workplace so they can afford to raise those children, which Ocasio-Cortez called economic conscription.

“Abortion rights are a class struggle too. When the powerful force people to give birth against their will, they trap millions into cycles of economic setback and desperation. Especially in a country without guaranteed healthcare. And desperate workers are far easier to exploit,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday.

“Abortion is an economic issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a House hearing which was called by Democrats to talk about restrictions placed on abortion by several states, according to The Blaze.

“Forcing poor and working-class people to give birth against their will, against their consent, against their ability to provide for themselves or a child, is a profound economic issue and it’s certainly a way to keep a workforce basically conscripted to large-scale employers and to employers to work more against their will, to take second and third jobs against their desire and their own autonomy,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came in response to Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS), who hit out at Democrats for their tunnel vision on abortion instead of economic issues like inflation and energy policy.

“Those same folks that don’t want abortion at nine months don’t want it to be eliminated completed,” LaTurner said. “I’ll remain pro-life.”

Ocasio-Cortez said it was “disappointing” to hear this from someone who has “never had to contend” with bearing a child, and said abortion is a “profound and central economic and class issue.”

Ocasio-Cortez also sparred with Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) who said “men cannot get pregnant.” Ocasio-Cortez accused Clyde of having an insensitive and dismissive approach towards trans people.

“The same folks who… told us that COVID’s just a flu, that climate change isn’t real, that January 6 was nothing but a tourist visit… are now trying to tell us that transgender people are not real,” she said. “And I would say that their claim is probably just as legitimate as all their others, which is to say not very much at all.”