Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) provided a misinformation-based excuse for the targeting of Justice Brett Kavanaugh while he dined at Morton’s Steakhouse’s downtown location in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening. The New York congresswoman falsely claimed that Kavanaugh had made it illegal to treat ectopic pregnancies in a number of states across the country.
“Poor guy. He left before his soufflé because he decided half the country should risk death if they have an ectopic pregnancy within the wrong state lines. It’s all very unfair to him. The least they could do is let him eat cake,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.
Poor guy. He left before his soufflé because he decided half the country should risk death if they have an ectopic pregnancy within the wrong state lines. It’s all very unfair to him.
The least they could do is let him eat cake 🍰 https://t.co/5Y3b1TIW1N
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 8, 2022
Protesters upset about Kavanaugh’s vote to once again allow states to impose restrictions on abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gathered outside of Morton’s on Wednesday, forcing Kavanaugh to use a back exit. The protesters also reportedly harassed the restaurant’s manager, calling on the employee to throw the associate justice out of the establishment.
A spokesman for Morton’s told Politico that “honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant. Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner.”
“There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency,” he added.
While Ocasio-Cortez seemed to smile upon the demonstration, her reason for supporting such action is fictitious. The treatment of ectopic pregnancies — which occur when an embryo implants itself outside of the uterus, oftentimes on the fallopian tube — remains legal in all 50 states. Embryos that implant outside of the uterus are not viable, and even the most strident of pro-life groups support the immediate treatment of them as a medically necessary act, not an abortion.
“No matter how an obstetrician feels about abortion, we all treat ectopic pregnancies the same way,” Dr. Ingrid Skop, director of medical affairs at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, told National Review last month. “We feel compelled to treat it as soon as possible.”
“I will never understand the pearl clutching over these protests,” continued Ocasio-Cortez. “Republicans send people to protest me all the time, sometimes drunk and belligerent. Nobody cares about it unless it’s a Republican in a restaurant. Can someone please explain the obsession because I don’t get it.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also expressed the Biden administration’s support for the protesters outside of Morton’s, telling Fox News’s Peter Doocy that “this is what a democracy is.”