The Heritage Foundation filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for “falsely accusing” and “defaming” Chaya Raichik, whose Twitter account has over one million followers.
The complaint is the result of statements made by Ocasio-Cortez at a hearing at the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on February 8 in which she claimed that Raichik lied about Boston Children’s Hospital “now offering ‘gender-affirming hysterectomies’ for young girls.”
“Are you aware… that from August 11th to August 16th that account posted false information about Boston Children’s Hospital claiming that they were providing hysterectomies to children?” Ocasio-Cortez asked a former Twitter executive about Raichik’s tweet.
“And are you aware that this lie was then circulated by other prominent far-right influences?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.
The nine-page complaint alleges that Ocasio-Cortez broke ethics rules by “knowingly and intentionally defaming Chaya Raichik, creator of the viral Libs of TikTok account, falsely accusing her of lying and disseminating disinformation…”
Raichik posted this claim in August on her Twitter feed featuring a video showing Dr. Frances Grimstad, a gynecologist and obstetrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, speaking about “gender-affirming hysterectomies.”.
Boston Children’s Hospital (@BostonChildrens) is now offering “gender affirming hysterectomies” for young girls pic.twitter.com/JOH5fFtGJ0
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 11, 2022
In the video, the doctor describes the procedure performed on “young girls” as including “the removal of the uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes” as well as, in some cases, the removal of ovaries.
The Heritage Foundation’s complaint noted that the hospital’s website states it offers a “Gender Affirming Surgical Perioperative Program (GASPP)” which includes “gender-affirming chest reconstruction pathway and clinical anesthesia management guidelines phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, hysterectomy and chondrolaryngoplasty procedures”.
The website specifies that operations involving the removal of sex organs aren’t done on patients younger than 18 years of age. In a subsequent post, Raichik accused the hospital of updating its website and increasing the age at which they are subjected to gender-affirming surgeries to 18 from 17.
The Heritage Foundation claims to have proof that “gender affirmation surgery” has been performed on patients as young as 15, and that the hospital “quietly changed its website to reflect that ‘genital surgeries are only performed on patients age 18 and older.”
“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation that the tweet contained false information is itself outrightly false on its face,” Heritage argued. “Rep. Ocasio-Cortez knowingly made this allegation in bad faith.”
While hand-delivering a copy of the complaint to her office, Raichik encountered AOC.
“I just delivered an ethics complaint to your office because you lied about me in a committee hearing,” Raichik said.
“You’re actually super transphobic and I never want to share a space with you,” the representative said to Raichik.
BREAKING: I served @AOC with an ethics complaint after she lied about me in a committee hearing. AOC wasn’t in her office but then I bumped into her as I was leaving the Capitol!
Watch what happens: pic.twitter.com/Lhrrzo1w8Q
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 30, 2023
Last year, Facebook permanently banned “Libs of TikTok” claiming that the account “didn’t follow our Community Standards.” Facebook also claimed that staffers at Boston Children’s Hospital said they received threats following a post that minors were being given hysterectomies as part of gender-affirming surgeries.
Raichik is an Orthodox Jew and a former real-estate agent who lives in Los Angeles. She retweets posts by left-wing extremists, in particular, those who advocate for promoting gender dysphoria among children in school. While the videos remain unaltered, the reposting by Raichik draws attention to the videos. Ironically, while Raichik has frequently been suspended and even banned on social media platforms, the original videos she reposted have never been removed.
