Athletes often forced into heartbreaking decisions

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On the road that leads to Clemson, S.C., billboards sponsored by an anti-abortion group dot the highway with the phrase “Pregnant & Scared?” plastered in large letters. They are an ominous backdrop for Clemson University, where at least seven current or recently graduated student-athletes terminated their pregnancies, primarily because they were afraid of losing their athletic scholarships.

“I have a couple teammates that have had abortions due to the fact that they knew they weren’t going to get their scholarship back,” said a female student-athlete at Clemson, who asked not to be identified. “But like an actual teammate having a child, and coming back and earning a scholarship, that’s a situation that hasn’t happened.”

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Outside the Lines: Pregnant Pause"Outside the Lines: Pregnant Pause" will re-airs on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. For more information, see the OTL Web site.

sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2865230
 
This is so true. Years back, I walked around the block with a male at an abortion clinic near Brown University and he told how hard his girlfriend had worked to get into college and how hard her parents had worked. She was in school, pregnant and would loose her athletic scholarship if she continued the pregnancy. It happens a lot.

These abortion clinics were not placed near colleges accidently. Another sad part is it was often their own classmates(3 or 4) from the private colleges that would volunteer as escorts to get them into the clinic. I am not sure if they got credits for this.Think of what these students could have done if they had had a pregnancy help service in the school.

When my daughter was a freshmen at another school, students approached her to be an escort.
 
Essentially, colleges are blackmailing student athletes into commiting murder. I say we charge these college administration with such. :mad:
 
We need a charity that helps these students pay for their education when they are pregnant and lose their scholarships.
 
If anything the NCAA should give them a year exemption of eligiblity, even with a red shirt. The school should be able to pull the scholarship for a year of the year the pregnancy will be effecting, but must give the athlete the ability to keep it one season, unless is reasonably unfit. Goodness, now I can see why rule books get so big.
 
Isn’t this a violation of equal rights? Isn’t it a violation of Title IX?

Why aren’t feminists up in arms over this?
 
I would think that the NCAA might be willing to exempt the students for a year because of “medical condition,” then restore the scholarship.

Not sure, but worth checking out to see. Perhaps the NCAA doesn’t want to do this because they don’t want to encourage student athletes to have sex and get pregnant. But I think their scholarships go to married young women as well??

The other thing I would say is that the young men and women need to be told in advance that they should NOT get pregnant while they are in college unless they are prepared to give up their scholarships. My husband and I were dating in college, and we abstained from sex until we were married. It CAN be done.
 
vern_humphrey said:
Isn’t this a violation of equal rights? Isn’t it a violation of Title IX?

Why aren’t feminists up in arms over this?
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Yes, that was in the article, they were going to make a law suit saying that it goes against Title IX.

Cat: They also do tell the athletes to not get pregnant or they could lose the scholarship, it was told to the lady featured in the article who kept her baby. She worked overnight at FedEx, while going to school and on the track team. When her boyfriend was sent to the Army, she had to send her child to her mother’s since, she couldn’t manage the child care. She has gotten back 75% of the scholarship this year. I guess that’s resonable enough, they often get divided up.

Goodness, you could put her on one of those NCAA commercials, “I’m on the track team, I work hard at school, I work right now too, because I lost my scholarship to have my child. I’m preparing for life, I’m not just an athlete, I’m a student-mother-worker-athlete.” Not too shabby for a kid/adult.

I don’t exactly know the dynamics that would cause a school to strip the athlete of a scholarship. It’s hard to know assess it really well, some might be elite, other might not want to burn the funds, another worry might be continuity of the team.

It’s hard though, especially at this point in their life, a college coach very well does at times have to play parent. If you have a 18 year old that you are sending off to college, you’d like to know that this is a coach that cares about the person, and is not looking at an athlete as if they are a cog in a machine. “Let’s see, I’ll pop your kid right out, causing too many problems, and just throw in another.” Seriously if you sent you daugter off to college, would you want a coach who says to her, “well guess what get an abortion, or else you lose your scholarship.”
 
Oh one more thing from the story:

Title IX states that institutions receiving federal funds cannot discriminate against any person on the basis of sex, and the law also mandates that those institutions “shall not exclude any student from its education program or activity …** on the basis of such student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom**.”
 
A lot of girls get scholarships for soccer and many other sports. The training for Olympic games is big in college but I am not sure about scholarships. I wonder if there is a rough figure on how many sport scholarships are given out yearly.

It is a big deal for these girls as they see their college funding is gone plus they feel they are letting the team down. Many of their parents also work so they don’t have a mother to care for the child.
 
gam197 said:
It is a big deal for these girls as they see their college funding is gone plus they feel they are letting the team down. Many of their parents also work so they don’t have a mother to care for the child.
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Very good points to ponder. They should be considered BEFORE one goes for a roll in the hay.

Nohome
 
What if the mother and father are married and have children while in college? These female athletes have no guarantee of their scholarships being renewed when they return. The NCAA and the university are often times just looking out for their “investments”. My Head coach called me into her office after I had my son and told me straight out, my husband and my son could never come to my meets, or travel meets or be mentioned in interviews or Q&A sessions. They could never come to my practices and no mention of them was going to be made of them in our program. She also wanted me to keep my maiden name instead of my husbands name in our program not to mention she gave me two months after my son was born to come in for a tryout and see if I could make it back onto the team. Two months after a very long and painful labor!! Oh by the way I was a gymnast, where physical appearance is very important and actually competing on an event is very competetive.
Right there and then I made the decision it would not be worthwhile to come back and represent that university as an athlete. They made me feel utterly ashamed I had a beautiful son and wanted me to pretend that nothing had happened. If I had wanted to keep attending the University the scholarship would not have been available to me unless I had met all of those demands. Either they push you to have an abortion or push you away so after you have the baby you don’t feel welcome to come back.
I will have to say I was allowed to keep my scholarship while I was still pregnant. Unfortunately during my pregnancy my head coach was replaced with a new head coach and hence the new demands after my pregnancy. I suppose in the long run it didn’t matter, I have always wanted to be a mommy and now have two beautiful children whom I love to death. I have my head coach to thank for giving me an even more deeper appreciation of new life and family!

I apologize for such a long post, it is my first one:D !!
 
mahnsfam said:
I apologize for such a long post, it is my first one:D !!
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But your voice is invaluable! Thank you for letting us know what you faced. I am sorry you encountered difficulties (though the end results are good).

I wonder what it will take to bring a new attitude to how similar situations are handled in colleges and universities?
 
I’m certainly not for killing unborn children, though the idea that you’re going to come back from a year with no training and compete at an elite level is just unrealisitic. I played Div III NCAA hockey, on season and off season if you weren’t training you were not going to be able to compete. Not to mention dozens of other factors that a missed season can bring. New coach, new system, no interest in players from the old school.
However, there are some other truths that need to be discussed here. Women’s sports and less popular sports, like hockey at all but a few schools (for example the Golden Gophers whose hockey program is renowed), have limited funding. Very few, if any at all, of these athletes are on full rides. The article clearly attempts to make it sound like losing the scholarship means no more college. Maybe they would have to continue their education at a state university instead of a private, but the reality is with what they are paying to attend now would certainly cover those costs. So what it comes down to is kill a kid so I can play softball.
Though I have to say I’m amazed they’re finding time for sex. When I wasn’t at practice or training I was in school, if I wasn’t in school I was studying, and my weekends were spent traveling from game to game. When I did have free time I was usually so exhausted I could barely move.
 
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