Japan is restricting who can and cannot travel to the Summer Olympics this year.
This is understandable because there is a pandemic that has killed millions of people. What is not understandable? Its anti-family restrictions. When athletes head to Japan, they generally cannot bring their children and child care providers. That’s the case even if there is proof that these people don’t have COVID-19.
So that means a mother can’t bring her infant or toddler when competing in the games — unless when deemed “necessary” by the International Olympic Committee. Primarily, that’s in cases in which athletes are breastfeeding.
United States women’s soccer star Alex Morgan spoke out against this policy last week.
“Still not sure what ‘when necessary’ even means,” she said on Twitter. “Is that determined by the mother or the IOC? We are Olympic mothers telling you, it is NECESSARY. I have not been contacted about being able to bring my daughter with me to Japan and we leave in 7 days.”
Morgan is spot on. She could be in Japan for more than one month, and the Olympic committee and the country of Japan, for some reason, think that she should not be able to bring her 1-year-old child.
Unfortunately, the Olympics is putting athletes, both male and female, in difficult positions. They are forcing athletes to choose between pursuing their lifelong dreams of competing in these games and being a parent. That’s a false binary.
Morgan’s baby isn’t a severe coronavirus threat to the country. Thankfully, the coronavirus isn’t a big risk to children. Deaths are rare, and they have little impact on the spread of the virus. Yet, children have been treated poorly throughout this whole thing. From closing down in-person education to forcing toddlers to wear masks, orders have failed the test of common sense.
The IOC and Japan would rather subject babies to stress from being separated from their mothers and create a less positive environment for the athletes competing. These athletes love their children and want to spend time with them. And if there is someone who can help take care of the child, be it a spouse or a child care provider, why not let them come as well, provided that he or she doesn’t have the virus? Japan and the IOC could even require that such a person is fully vaccinated before he or she comes over.
Society should value human life at all stages. Japan and the IOC shouldn’t look at children as a burden. They are a gift. The mentality that people have to pick between living their life and having a child is ugly. It results in millions of unborn babies being killed every single year via abortion. One piece of building a culture of life is accommodating working mothers.
The Olympics has a great opportunity to give these athletes, who are role models for many children across the world, a way to show that it’s possible to have a family and be a world-class athlete.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
