Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently announced that she had frozen her eggs at the age of 36. Predictably, the announcement drew the ridicule that increasingly substitutes for political argument. Some critics brandished the dreary clinical phrase “geriatric pregnancy.” Their purpose was less to acknowledge the difficulties she may face than to make her desire for children itself seem ridiculous. Partisan mockery thus descended into contempt for the hope of motherhood.

Conservatives should refuse to join in it.