‘Women should be able to make their own decisions’: NBA, WNBA issue joint statement on Roe v. Wade decision

NBA AND WNBA STATEMENT REGARDING ROE V. WADE DECISION

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert issued the following statement regarding today’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization: pic.twitter.com/P13MSouB5A

— NBA (@NBA) June 24, 2022

“The NBA and WNBA believe that women should be able to make their own decisions concerning their health and future, and we believe that freedom should be protected. We will continue to advocate for gender and health equity, including ensuring our employees have access to reproductive health care, regardless of their location,” read the statement.

The controversial ruling eliminated a nearly 50-year precedent that federally protected women’s reproductive rights since 1973.

The decision — an early draft of which was scooped by ‘Politico’ on May 3 — will transform life for women in America. Near total bans on abortion will come into effect in about half of the country’s states.

In September, a number of prominent women athletes, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe and basketball standouts Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, joined 500 athletes and groups who signed a friend-of-the-court brief to the justices. The group included 26 Olympians, 73 professional athletes and various athlete associations. They argued that abortion rights have helped the growth of women’s sports and expressed concern that future athletes would suffer without those protections.

What is ‘Roe v. Wade’?

The case is sometimes referred to simply as “Roe”, the listed name of the 22-year-old plaintiff, Norma McCorvey. ‘Wade’ was the defendant Henry Wade, the Dallas County (Texas) district attorney at the time.

The WNBA firmly believes people have the right to make their own personal decisions regarding their health. We stand in solidarity with those who fear for the repercussions of the Supreme Court decision today and remain committed to our 2022 WNBA season focus on civic engagement. pic.twitter.com/RtuBdjbozP

— WNBA (@WNBA) June 24, 2022

‘Roe’ struck down laws that made abortion illegal in several states, and ruled that abortion would be allowed up to the point of foetal viability, that is, the time after which a foetus can survive outside the womb.

Foetal viability was around 28 weeks (7 months) at the time of the ‘Roe’ judgment nearly 50 years ago; experts now agree that advances in medicine have brought the threshold down to 23 or 24 weeks (6 months or a little less), and newer studies show this could be further pegged at 22 weeks. An average pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks.

Furious and ready to fight. pic.twitter.com/6fdEHUd4pM

— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) June 24, 2022

Foetal viability is often seen as the point at which the rights of the woman can be separated from the rights of the unborn foetus. The length of a pregnancy is commonly calculated from the start of a person’s most recent menstrual period. Since many people identify pregnancy only after the sixth week, pre-viability timelines leave women with very little time and opportunity to make a decision to abort.

Abortion laws across the world rely on this metric but those opposing abortions argue that this is an arbitrary timeframe that legislation and the court in ‘Roe’ adopted.