NCAA adopts new rule protecting pregnancy

When Cassandra Harding found out she was pregnant in 2004, a document haunted her. It laughed at the senior triple-jumper from the University of Memphis when she wanted to keep her child. It tormented her when she wanted to keep competing. It was a small piece of paper that required the signature of each member of the Memphis women's track team. And it held the key to Harding's fate. The paper clearly stated that if any infraction was committed, a scholarship would not be renewed. Harding's pregnancy fell on the list of infractions and she was faced with a difficult choice. Lose her baby to abortion, or lose her scholarship. Harding chose to keep her child and the track scholarship allowing her to pay for school disintegrated, forcing Harding to work two jobs while pregnant in order to remain at Memphis. Months later, several track members at Clemson University shared Harding's dilemma when they were forced to have abortions in order to keep their scholarships. "Each university was left up to its own to determine how they dealt with (the issue of pregnancy)," San Diego State assistant athletic director Mike May said. However, on Jan. 13, the Division I Management Council voted 46-5 in favor of a proposal preventing schools from retracting scholarships because of pregnancy, depression, addiction, mononucleosis and eating disorders. "This is certainly something that protects the student athlete," May said. "We are all in favor of that. "The more things you can gather to assist student athletes (the better), and this is another example of the NCAA taking a step toward doing that." Under the new ruling, which was approved on Monday by the NCAA Board of Directors, athletes will be protected starting Aug. 1. "I definitely respect that rule," San Diego State women's soccer freshman goalkeeper Aubree Southwick said. "If (a female athlete) got pregnant and knew her scholarship would be taken away and that caused her to have an abortion - that is where I think (this rule will help the most). "The fact that they're making this rule is good because it allows female athletes to do what they think they should do without being pressured." However, with scholarships being a year-to-year award, female athletes are still not out of the woods yet. The new rule only prevents a scholarship from being withdrawn for the particular year in which an athlete becomes pregnant. Thus, schools could choose not to renew a scholarship for the next year, which many think is still unfair. "If they're going to revoke a scholarship," Southwick said. "It should be based on performance instead of their personal situation."

1 comments

Trojan Man

Mon Nov 17 2008 02:47

Can you catch mononucleosis from getting railed by a football player? If not, it appears we have two different categories of "illnesses" that are being blindly lumped together.

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