SFLA’s Standing With You Initiative Directly Confronts the Issue of Female Athlete Mistreatment by Those Pushing Abortion to Keep Players Right Where They Are 

“What a shame that Megan Rapinoe and more than 500 female athletes don’t seem to know about their legal rights and the resources available to women experiencing pregnancy while competing,” said SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins. “Our Pregnant and Parenting Bill of Rights Project was created to confront that information deficit.” 

WASHINGTON D.C. (09-21-2021) – Responding to news that more than 500 female athletes were part of an amicus (friend of the court) brief filed in the historic Dobbs v. Jackson case before the Supreme Court, Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins observed, “This brief illustrates why Students for Life of America initiated the Pregnant and Parenting Bill of Rights, because too many female athletes report that they have been pressured to have abortions by those controlling their programs. Forcing an athlete to choose between an athletic career or scholarships and a preborn child is not only immoral, it’s illegal. Women need to know that there is legal help and community support for them.

“These pro-abortion athletes have misused the goodwill and respect they’ve earned through their careers to send a defeatist message to other women. Telling women that they can’t succeed as mothers and athletes is the kind of pitch you’d expect from an abortionist or a manipulative coach, but not from a fellow champion.” 

Students for Life of America’s Standing with You initiative provides women with help and support state by state, as well as informs women about their rights at work and school. 

As previously reported by SFLA:

The Pregnant and Parenting on Campus ‘Bill of Rights’

• Pregnant students cannot be barred from activities enjoyed by fellow students, including but not limited to club memberships, academic programs, and intramural activities.
• Pregnant students should not be barred from utilizing campus housing and, upon birth of her child, should be permitted to make her own decision about off-campus housing.   
• Pregnant students cannot have their academic or athletic scholarships revoked due to pregnancy or be subject to penalty regarding any other type of financial aid.
• Professors and other staff may not punish pregnant students because of a medically necessary absence. Concessions must be made to re-take tests and complete other assignments if necessary.
• Instructors cannot penalize a student because of his or her parenting status.
• Recipients of scholarships, athletic or otherwise, are to be fully informed of their Title IX rights. Coaches or other school officials who fail to fully inform students are to be deemed negligent.
• Athletic directors or coaches may not bully students into abortion threatening loss of future or present opportunity.  
• Campus Title IX offices are responsible for ensuring this law is followed. Too often, Title IX coordinators are either complacent or complicit in violations.  
• Student problems and concerns must be addressed in a timely manner to ensure an uninterrupted education.
• Failure to provide these protections to students and must be reported.Students for Life of America has been advocating for women balancing school and parenting. Click here to read the story at FOX of a student helped by the program.

  In defense of women and preborn babies, Students for Life of America and Human Coalition Action filed an amicus brief in the Dobbs case as well, discussing how abortion has harmed the preborn and women, especially minority women as well as the fact that women don’t need abortion to thrive. 

“Amici adamantly reject any pretense that women must rely on abortion to further their circumstances or life. Amici advocate on behalf of capable, intelligent, skilled, and strong women facing unexpected pregnancies every day. But what is unexpected is not therefore unwelcome or even necessarily surprising and can lead to great joy with the kind of effort that life requires. Regardless of the sometimes-considerable challenges they face, they are able. Able to parent, able to work, able to succeed, able to obtain medical care, able to create incredible lives for themselves and their children. We are women. We believe in women. We serve women. We advocate for women.”

Talking about the case, Hawkins observed: “As head of an organization primarily powered by women, many of whom are mothers, and working with the generation of women most targeted for abortion in all 50 states, I’ve witnessed the misogyny of abortion that tells women they can’t succeed without sacrificing their children. The Supreme Court’s dangerous and erroneous conclusions made by seven men about what women need has harmed generations of women who deserve support, not the devastation of abortion. Students for Life stands with the Pro-Life Generation in making sure that women know that many are ready to help.”

In an op-ed at The Washington Examiner on abortion among student athletes, Hawkins wrote: “While the 1972 Title IX was created to protect female athletes from discrimination on the basis of sex, many athletes report that rather than their pregnancies being welcomed or accommodated, they are facing incredible pressure to abort, almost as though Roe’s 1973 abortion ruling trumped their rights.”

For more information or interviews e-mail Kristi Hamrick at [email protected]

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Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), make up the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization and a political and policy operation engaging people of all ages. Together they work to end abortion — the human rights issue of our day — and provide political, legal, and community support for women and their children, born and preborn. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, SFLA has more than 1,250 groups on middle, high school, college, university, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. SFLA creates strategy, policy, and programming to connect those most targeted for abortion with people ready to help and builds a framework for political engagement on their behalf. SFLA and SFLAction have more conversations with those most targeted by the abortion industry than any other pro-life outreach in the world, reaching more than 2 million people across social media platforms each week and engaging in approximately 100,000 digital conversations per month. Over the last 15 years, President Kristan Hawkins has grown SFLA into a $15 million organization preparing for a Post-Roe America.