All Things Sports

The Midterm Elections were this week and while the counting is not complete, the impact of female sports must be talked about. That is because of one thing: abortion. Now I am not going to go super political and open up a debate on politics because that is not what I want to focus on. Today I want to focus on the effect abortion and access to it has on women’s sports. Now the Midterms had a lot of bills that centered on either outlawing or legalizing abortion and in almost all of the cases, if not all of them, the pro-abortion side won. This must be seen as a major win for female sports from an objective perspective and here’s why. 

The first thing that is important is age. When women are generally in their physical primes and most likely to be playing professional sports, they are also most likely to be able to conceive. Now this has actually led to many cases where female athletes have gotten pregnant whilst in the middle of their careers. The best example of this is Serena Williams who actually won a Grand Slam tournament whilst being pregnant, which is a pretty amazing feat if you ask me. However, it should be clarified that not all athletes are Serena Williams. And in her case she did actually want to keep the baby and have it with her husband. This case does not represent the whole population of female athletes. Some may not want to have the baby or take 9 months out of their career in order to have the baby. Some may have medical concerns, whatever the case some may want to have an abortion for whatever reason. This would help them continue their career and continue to perform at a high level if they wanted.

This is where access to abortion comes in. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year, access to abortion came under serious threat as several states began to pass laws to try and ban abortions, meaning that these athletes could not be able to get access to abortion and continue their careers if they wanted. However, in the Midterm Elections many pro-abortion bills saw victories and anti-abortion bills saw losses as people overwhelmingly supported giving people access to abortions. This allows female athletes to continue their careers without any disruption and perform at a high level as they would not have to take 9 months out of their career along with facing potential health problems in order to bear the child. Thus the midterms had a huge impact on female athletes and ultimately, female athletes scored a major victory no matter which political side you are on.