Billie Jean King, the tennis legend who shared her painful journey to getting an abortion in her memoir “All In,” joined different feminine athletes calling for the safety of ladies’s reproductive rights.
A draft of a Supreme Court docket majority opinion putting down abortion rights codified within the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling was revealed by Politico Monday night time, triggering responses from activists across the nation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. confirmed the authenticity of the doc that would nonetheless change as justices deliberate, with an official ruling anticipated to be handed down in two months.
King, a Lengthy Seaside native, joined a refrain of athletes who opposed the potential erosion of reproductive protections.
“A lady has had the precise to make selections for her physique since #RoeVWade in 1973,” King posted on Twitter. “If Roe falls, thousands and thousands of Individuals would lose entry to vital reproductive care. It is important that we do all we will to guard this laws.”
Fellow tennis legend Martina Navratilova additionally vented on Twitter, posting, “Additionally a worthy reminder — apart from [Justice Amy] Coney Barrett, all the lads taking away [women’s] rights to decide on are nicely previous the age when girls may truly get pregnant. So as soon as once more — outdated, principally white, males are deciding [women’s] destiny. I hate the whole thing …"
The Washington Mystics’ Natasha McCloud wrote on her Twitter account, “The structure was written by white males. For white males.”
She added, “America is NOT professional life. They’re professional start. We nonetheless pay girls lower than males. Not each girl has entry to well being care. We don’t give attention to fixing and constructing our schooling system. Worth of housing …. disgusting.”
King’s place was formed by her expertise having an abortion in California earlier than the Roe vs. Wade ruling. Throughout a Los Angeles Occasions E-book Membership interview, she mentioned the choice.
“I obtained pregnant and I simply was so confused and in such a nasty means, and I feel a child is a very powerful duty on this planet and I simply didn’t really feel like this was ... I simply couldn't do that,” she mentioned, noting she had already requested a divorce from her husband and shared with him that she was drawn to different girls. Her husband, who she mentioned she beloved and infrequently referred to as her finest pal, declined to grant the divorce.
In her memoir, King wrote about California’s coverage of permitting abortions earlier than Roe vs. Wade in the event that they have been for therapeutic causes and carried out in a hospital. Her husband, Larry, joined her explaining to a committee why she wanted the process.
“Any girl wanting an abortion needed to go earlier than a medical committee first and clarify why she believed her being pregnant would ‘gravely impair’ her ‘bodily or psychological well being,’” King wrote. “In order that’s what I needed to do. Explaining to a panel of ten or fifteen strangers why I certified for an abortion was most likely probably the most degrading factor I’ve ever skilled. When Larry and I walked into the room and noticed them wanting again at us, Larry mentioned to me below his breath, ‘That is ridiculous.’”
King is now amongst many athletes lobbying for assist of abortion rights.
The Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike and USC swimmer Lauren Blair joined Megan Rapinoe, Sue Byrd and greater than 500 different present and former highschool, school and professional athletes who signed an amicus transient in assist of Jackson Girls’s Well being Group, the respondent within the case the Supreme Court docket is now reviewing that would nullify Roe vs. Wade.
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