One day after Politico released the Supreme Court's draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, which would legally abolish the right to abortion in the U.S., many athletes responded with fury and anger.¹

Tianna Hawkins of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Washington Mystics said, “I feel like everyone should have a choice on what they want to do with their bodies.… What if you want to conceive, and then the doctor says at early stages there is a deformity or something like that. You’re telling me if I want to save my child from struggling or pain and stuff like that, I have to bring him into this world and just let him suffer and die, and not do it early on? ... What we do with our body, who we sleep with, who we date. It’s nobody’s business.”

Her Mystics teammate, Natasha Cloud, tweeted, “America is forcing women to birth children they won’t help care for… It’s been a war on women for some time now.”

The WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury forward Brianna Turner tweeted, “It’s kinda wild that 9 people have the power to make generational decisions for the US population.” Satou Sabally, who plays for WNBA’s Dallas Wings, tweeted, “Abortion is healthcare!!!! Stop controlling women’s bodies.”

Napheesa Collier, a U.S. Olympian and a player for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, tweeted, “Absolutely heartbreaking and such a huge blow to women’s rights. We are going backwards in time.”

Simon Rosenblum-Larson, a pitcher in Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays organization and former player at Harvard, tweeted, “It’s impossible to stand by and watch as a woman’s right to choose gets ripped away.” and “The Senate should immediately end the filibuster and pass legislation protecting abortion rights.”

Billie Jean King, the great tennis player, wrote on Twitter, “A woman has had the right to make decisions for her body since #RoeVWade in 1973. If Roe falls, millions of Americans would lose access to critical reproductive care.”

Rai Benjamin, who won a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles in last year’s Olympics and is the second fastest in that event ever, tweeted, “I feel like we should let women decide what’s best for women.”

Rex Chapman, former NBA player and a TV analyst during this year’s NCAA Basketball Championships, tweeted, “They’ll come for same-sex and interracial marriage next.”

Former ESPN announcer Keith Olbermann put it this way on Twitter: “Let me sum this up: Fuck the Supreme Court.”

Last September, more than 500 women athletes filed a Supreme Court amicus brief against this Mississippi anti-abortion law. The draft opinion that was just leaked relates to the Supreme Court case around this Mississippi law, the official decision on which is coming in the next few weeks. A letter from a reader posted at revcom.us on the athletes’ amicus brief included an important quote from an article by Toni RedTree. She talked about how in the face of the Christian fascist offensive against abortion, one of the things “movement” groups are NOT doing is “bringing forward artists, clergy, sports figures, intellectuals, on an international scale to stand against this and use their platforms to make clear the huge stakes of the fight.”² RedTree called for people to take to the streets in all-out political for the right to abortion, like what happened in Argentina, Poland and other countries. Now, the leaked opinion from the Supreme Court’s fascist majority, making clear their intent to overturn Roe v. Wade, makes it even more clear and urgent: ONLY THE PEOPLE IN THEIR MILLIONS CAN STOP THIS!

Take to the Streets and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights NOW!

ABORTION ON DEMAND & WITHOUT APOLOGY

FORCED MOTHERHOOD = FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT

RISE UP!

WEAR GREEN