NCAA Will Review Pregnancy Policy After Student Athletes Get Abortions

LifeNews.com ^ | May 24, 2007 | Steven Ertelt

[monomaniac]

Memphis, TN (LifeNews.com) -- After several colleges came under fire for revoking the scholarships of student athletes who become pregnant, which pressured them into having abortions, the NCAA says it plans to review its policies. The college athletic organization says its women in sports committee will review the problem.

Janet Kittell, the head of the NCAA's committee on women's athletics, told the Associated Press that her panel will hold a hearing on the issue in July

"We want to act judiciously here," Kittell told AP. "I don't think it calls for emergency legislation, but I think it calls for a thorough discussion and thoughtful response."

The problems came to light after ESPN did an investigative story on how students at the University of Memphis and Clemson University lost scholarships over their pregnancies. The report included interviews with seven Clemson University students who said they felt coerced into having abortions to keep the athletic money. http://www.lifenews.com/nat3117b.html

Kittell, an associate athletic director at Indiana University, said she did not expect any actions taken against the two colleges over the situations there.

"I would never approve of, sanction or defend that process," she said.

Typically colleges and universities do not have formal rules on pregnancy and scholarships, which leaves many students confused as to what will happen should they become pregnant. Some students wind up making decisions based only on verbal threats or promises that may have no weight.

"If it's not written down, you really don't have a policy," Melissa Harwood-Rom, an associate athletic director at the University of Arkansas, said. Her school recently put a policy on paper that is considered the first of its kind.

The NCAA has no general rules on how colleges should treat pregnant athletes but it allows students to apply for an extra year of eligibility which would not count as a redshirt year but would allow girls who become pregnant to attend college an extra year and stay in school for six years and compete for four.

Elizabeth Sorensen, an associate professor of nursing at Wright State University in Ohio, has been leading a new movement to protect the rights of pregnant athletes. She told AP that the NCAA's policy is "vague, insufficient, ineffective, whatever word you want to put there."

According to her research, just 26 of the more than 270 Division I schools in the NCAA have any written policy

Sorenson told the Associated Press that NCAA member colleges review scholarships annually and that they must follow Title IX federal law about unequal treatment based on gender.

"What do they do for males who impregnate women when they're in college?" Sorensen said. "I don't think these athletic departments are running these policies by their own university lawyers. They must treat pregnancy as a temporary disabling condition, just like a knee injury or something."

[GovernmentShrinker]

The report included interviews with seven Clemson University students who said they felt coerced into having abortions to keep the athletic money.

Translation: they wanted to keep playing big-time sports on somebody else's dime more than they wanted to have their babies. I don't buy the "coercion" stuff. These girls have made sports their number one priority, often since middle school if not earlier. It doesn't take "coercion" to cause them to continue having the same priorities.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

These must be the nappy-headed ho’s Don Imus was talking about.

[perez24]

I guess avoiding getting pregnant in the first place while on scholarship was probably out of the question for these players.

Maybe it’s unfair or whatever, but a male athlete who becomes a father can still play his sport, and probably even be a father to the kid(s).

[CallChuck]

I agree with GovernmentShrinker. I don’t buy the coercion excuse - no doubt there’ll be more on that to follow though.

What are the policies with regard to what happens to students athletes who have other debilitating circumstances occur in their life? If one was to get a disease like cancer that takes them out of the mix for a season (or even two) while being treated, do they retain their scholarship benefits without question or is it handled on a case-by-case basis?

Start Young. Play Strong.
CallChuck www.MarathonDigitalMedia.com

[Pinkbell]

I think they should really be encouraged to abstain if they want to keep their scholarship. However, if they get pregnant, I think it is important the school help them out as opposed to encouraging them into abortion or making them feel as though it is their only option. After all, the pregnancy will naturally terminate in 9 months, and they would most likely help a girl who had some sort of illness or injury where they could not play.

[Coleus]

.

[George from New England]

We need a few posts on this thread about the sports competitors that get pregnant intentionally to increase certain hormone levels that allow them to perform better than when not pregnant. I understand this occurs frequently in many olympic camps especially the Chinese. Then after they get the medal they abort.

[torchthemummy]

Students that are receiving athletic scholarships are expected to be athletes. The purpose is to attract both athletes and students that will support their college teams. On the high end of, say, Ohio State, Florida State, Notre Dame etc., many of these athletes create revenue, attract above mentioned types, and create $ giving alumni.