The NCAA has many issues on its plate right now. Abortion is not one of them. But several university athletic officials have partnered with the media to try and push it up the priority list. It’s almost as if journalists are deliberately conducting a pressure campaign to promote abortion.
The Washington Post wrote just such a pressure piece, warning that the NCAA’s silence on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has thrust college sports into confusion. Of course, it has not.
The NCAA has a pregnancy tool kit, which features a grotesque flowchart for female athletes that casually connects “elect to abort” and “return to sport.” But this is no longer good enough, according to the athletic officials the Washington Post interviewed.
One women’s coach, Georgia Tech basketball coach Nell Fortner, has decided to lecture her players about the “fundamental right that’s been taken away from us.” She had to do this because, when she asked several of her players what they thought about the Supreme Court decision, they knew nothing about it. An anonymous Athletic Department official added that if female athletes aren’t thinking about abortion, “they should be.”
Michigan State Assistant Athletic Director Jacquie Joseph suggested it was unfair that male athletes wouldn’t have to miss a season of their sport while female athletes would. Apparently, either men need to be held “accountable” by being suspended for a season, or women should be allowed to kill their unborn children. There is no middle ground.
And then there is Long Island gymnastics coach Randy Lane, who the Washington Post tells us was one of the few Division I coaches to condemn the Supreme Court’s decision. Overturning Roe “horrified” Lane, who “cried several times” thinking about the decision.
To the extent that college athletic officials care about abortion at all, they care about athletes being able to toss their unborn children aside so they can continue sporting careers without a hiccup. Joseph euphemistically notes that “we’ve had players have babies, and we’ve helped players make a different choice from a medical standpoint.” She despairs what athletic officials will do now when female athletes get pregnant. Here’s an idea: How about helping ensure that mother and baby are happy and healthy?
Pregnancy is not some disease that women contract out of the blue. An unborn child is not simply some obstacle that college officials must help remove from the lives of female athletes. Children are not more disposable just because their mothers are athletes.
That is true no matter how many college athletic officials complain otherwise.
