Why Scores of Female Athletes Are Speaking Out on Abortion Rights

With a Supreme Court ruling in the balance, an Olympic medalist joined a group of more than 500 athletes supporting reproductive rights.

By Kurt Streeter
Sept. 27, 2021

Crissy Perham had never spoken publicly about her choice.

In 31 years, Perham, a three-time Olympic medalist, told only a handful of people what it was like to be pregnant as a struggling college sophomore and decide to have an abortion. She kept quiet about the freedom and the second chance that ending her pregnancy gave her. Kept quiet about how it helped pave the way for a swimming career and the success she experienced once it was over.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/sports/women-athletes-abortion-rights-brief.html

USA – Treated as a “criminal mastermind”: Black women athletes punished for mental & reproductive health

Brianna McNeal is one of several Black women athletes whose mental health is denied and held to an inhuman standard

By KYLIE CHEUNG
PUBLISHED JULY 17, 2021

Brianna McNeal had been recovering from an abortion she had in January last year, when she missed a mandatory drug test from World Athletics two days after the procedure. McNeal, a 2016 Olympic track and field champion, had been in bed, and didn't hear the anti-doping officials at her front door who had come to carry out the test.

Physically and emotionally recovering from her abortion, among other intense personal struggles, marked one of the most difficult times in McNeal's life. Yet, where she needed compassion and support, she was met with suspicion, interrogation, and devastating punishment. Following two hearings of her case before World Athletics, which McNeal described to Salon as "insensitive," "invasive" and "gaslighting," last month, she was suspended from competing in her sport for five years for allegedly tampering within the results management process.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/07/17/black-women-athletes-brianna-mcneal-naomi-osaka/

17.07.2021

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athletes and abortion

‘I don’t know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn’t had an abortion’, says London 2012 double-gold medallist

'I don’t know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn’t had an abortion', says London 2012 double-gold medallist

Ben Rumsby
7 June 2017

London 2012 double-gold medallist Sanya Richards-Ross has claimed every female track-and-field athlete she knows has had an abortion after revealing she had one herself just before the previous Olympics.

Richards-Ross, who won the 400 metres and 4x400m titles five years ago, having also claimed relay gold in 2004 and 2008, disclosed she terminated a pregnancy one day before leaving for the Beijing Games in her new book, Chasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile Has Taught Me about God and Life.

Continued at source: The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2017/06/07/every-female-track-and-field-athlete-know-has-had-abortion-says/

07.06.2017