Uh... What?

Let's talk about abortion. Actually, let's talk about stupidity in the context of abortion.

Sanya Richards-Ross, an Olympic gold medalist gave an interview the other day in which she said some amazingly stupid things. First, she said that every female track and field athlete she knows has undergone an abortion: "I literally don't know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn't had an abortion and that's sad." Then she said that "abortion is not an issue that [is] talked about, especially in sports." And she hoping that by mentioning this that she "will open up discussions."

Let's stop there for a moment, shall we? How does one respond to this?

Oh, I know. What is the link between sports and abortion that she seems to think is relevant? Should we believe that running track and field makes you pregnant? Because it really doesn't. Are we to believe that women and athletics don't mix? As much as I'd laugh if that was the logical conclusion of her point, it's not. There is no link between pregnancy and women athletes. What really seems to be going on here is that Ross is hanging out with a bunch of stupid and/or slutty women and she's mistakenly assuming that something other than their behavior is responsible. There simply is no other link. And if there was, then perhaps it's time to re-examine the feminist dogma that demands that women go into sports.

You know, I'd go out on a limb and say that I doubt it's all track and field women either. I'll bet the young women who run at Princeton or Oxford don't fall into this category. Indeed, I'm betting all of Ross's friends are probably from the Caribbean islands... the lands of poverty and ganja. Maybe that's the place to start looking for this mysterious source of "runner's pregnancy."

Wait, wait wait! As I keep reading the article, I may have stumbled upon a clue. Ross continues:

"At that time in your life when you're in college, you don't feel comfortable talking to your mom. So, a lot of information you get is from your peers. So, there's a lot of miseducation that happens to young women in college, because we're educating ourselves."

Ah, the blind leading the blind. So now you pass the buck to "sports" because "track and field made me get an abortion" is a lot more interesting headline than "my stupid ass friends said I couldn't get pregnant if I waved a dead chicken over my lady parts after having freaky sex."

Yep. That must be it... oh wait, there's one more interesting quote here. Here it is:

"It's going to sound silly to some people but, in our community, people don't want to take the pill because you put water weight on."

So you knew how to avoid pregnancy, but you chose not to because it might interfere with your athletics. That's even worse than "we didn't know because we miseducated each other". So the issue ultimately is one of responsibility (big word, I know). Ms. Ross had the knowledge and ability to avoid what she complains about, but she chose not to. She couldn't even be bothered not to have sex. Of course, it went wrong for her and now she's trying to invent a link with sports to shift the blame from herself to some nebulous "we don't talk about it enough in sports."

Sorry, Ms. Ross. No sale.