Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is detained outside the US Supreme Court. Photo / Getty Images
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is detained outside the US Supreme Court. Photo / Getty Images
Firebrand Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been accused of pretending to be handcuffed by police officers at a pro-choice demonstration outside the US Supreme Court.
The 32-year-old representative from New York was led away by a police officer with her hands behind her back - as if she had handcuffson - but then raised her right arm high above her head and clenched a fist as she received cheers from supporters.
Republican politicians and commentators seized upon the bizarre spectacle to accuse Ocasio-Cortez of gesture politics.
"Note the handcuff pose, abandoned only to raise her fist in the air. The queen of gestures," said Fox News political analyst Brit Hume.
"AOC is such an expert at getting attention and narrative building that she PRETENDED to be handcuffed just so she could have this image on social media. There are no handcuffs on her," tweeted Texas businessman Jason Howerton.
Ocasio-Cortez was one of 17 lawmakers arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding after they staged a sit-in to protest the court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at an abortion-rights protest in June. Photo / AP
She later took to Instagram to reveal that she had been fined $50. "This is my charge and fine. Worth it," she wrote.
She later addressed the "fake" handcuffs accusation during an informal Q & A.
"Republicans' favourite hobby is to make conspiracy theories out of everything to distract you and keep you from talking about what's actually important - which is the fact that they are trying to take away your right to bodily autonomy," Ocasio-Cortez said.
"If I was faking that, why would I intentionally fist pump somebody? It's so silly."
No faking here. Putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained, handcuffed or not, to avoid escalating charges like resisting arrest.
But given how you lied about a fellow rape survivor for “points,” as you put it to me, I don’t expect much else from you. pic.twitter.com/lUc1TPS21D
"AOC just faked being handcuffed to sell her lie," right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Twitter. "Democrats are failing so badly, they are now resorting to flat out lying to their voters to try to get them to vote. It's pathetic!"
The protest followed last month's controversial ruling by the US Supreme Court that overturned the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v Wade, which had guaranteed women's access to abortion.
Abortion has now been banned or remains under threat in 60 per cent of states.
A total of 35 people were arrested, including prominent progressives Democrats Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush.
Ocasio-Cortez was released shortly after and returned to Congress to vote to protect marriage equality.
Omar, a representative from Minnesota, said: "Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court.
"I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights," she added.
Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York was also arrested, and said: "There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care".
"The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls and any person who can become pregnant."
