Saturday, January 24, 2009
Public to Pregnant Women: Don't Have An Abortion, But Don't Have A Child Either If It Means Inconveniencing Others
Apropos my blogging-for-choice comment that we need to change the judgmental, punitive way we talk about women and pregnancy....
NY Times: Candace Parker Is Balancing Career and Family, by Karen Crouse:
The Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker is carrying a child this year when she was being counted on to carry a league. If the W.N.B.A. is not roundly thrilled with her pregnancy, which became public earlier this month, Parker has decided she can live with that.
“My whole career has been trying to please people in basketball,” Parker, a 22-year-old newlywed, said Friday in a telephone interview. “Now it’s time to please myself.” She added, “For me, family has always come first.”...
W.N.B.A. Commissioner Donna Orender said her initial reaction to Parker’s pregnancy was a quiet sigh of resignation. Then she thought of all the women in the more traditional workplace struggling with the issue of when or if to start a family, and she realized that Parker’s pregnancy provided a perfect modeling moment.
“Here she is, front and center, and people are discussing the timing of her reproductive life,” Orender said Friday in a telephone interview. “That’s a very public discussion that hasn’t happened before. I do think that’s a good thing for women who go through these issues often in silence or alone.”...
Unlike athletes in individual sports like golf, swimming or running, Parker has teammates who will be affected by her pregnancy. On Internet message boards, people have described Parker as “selfish” and argued that she should not have become pregnant while under contract with the Sparks. Her pregnancy prompted her to forfeit a $1.5 million payday to play for a Russian club this winter.
See: examiner.com: Candace Parker’s pregnancy? No, really. We’re cool with it. and Should Candace Parker's pregnancy be a concern for WNBA?
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/2009/01/public-to-pregn.html