Every female track athlete has had an abortion- Sanya Richard confesses

ruby orimba

June 16, 2017 3:59 PM

"...I literally don't know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn't had an abortion..."

Kenyan athletes.

Five-time Olympic track star

Now, she’s confessed to Sports Illustrated Now that abortion is common among the female athletes that she knows, only that it's not discussed often.

"The truth is it's an issue that's not really talked about, especially in sports, and a lot of young women have experienced this," she said. "I literally don't know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn't had an abortion and that's sad."

She blames it on the fact that female athletes have concerns about weight gain from birth control and avoid it because of it. "It's going to sound silly to some people but, in our community, people don't want to take the Pill because you put water weight on and then people tell you when you're extremely fit, you can't get pregnant because our [menstrual] cycles are shorter. So, there's a lot of miseducation that happens to young women in college, because we're educating ourselves."

She says that most mothers don’t have a close relationship with their college girls and instead of talking to someone who knows, girls get their information from peers. She’s here to educate.

"At that time in your life, when you're in college, you don't feel comfortable talking to your mom," she said. "So, a lot of the information you get is from your peers."

According to Women's Health short or light periods can get in the way of a woman's fertility, but she can definitely still get pregnant. Having no period often indicates that a woman is not ovulating, making it unlikely that she would get pregnant. However, there have been some case reports of ovulation without menstruation, making it possible to get pregnant without actually bleeding.