Recently, speaking with someone about women's basketball, she mentioned a subject that needed some attention: the impact of pregnacy on female athletes. It is, after all, one thing women can do that men can't (though, oddly enough, a man's role in the "process" seems to be ignored) and, certainly, is a decision that impacts their career (as well as their team).

At the WNBA level we've very visible examples: from Sheryl Swoopes back in '97 (how many of us measure the league's growth by Jordan's height), to Helen Darling, to Tina Thompson, DeMya Walker and, now, Lisa Leslie.

A couple of days ago steve & jessie linked a story on an athlete's postpartum recovery process. Today, ESPN has an article on the decisions pregnant college female athletes make:

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.

The NCAA, points out the article, leaves this issue up to its indivdual institutions

ESPN requested on-camera interviews with NCAA officials, and while our requests were declined, we were told in an e-mail: "… the issue is primarily one involving individuals and their campuses, and all decisions related to financial aid and medical exemptions are institutional."

"For the NCAA to throw up its hands and essentially say, 'We're being neutral here, it's left to our members' judgment,' isn't taking responsibility for how its policies are signaling to institutions that maybe it's OK to take away scholarships for athletes who get pregnant when it's not OK under Title IX," Brake said.