Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Donate to our newsroom

Menu

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact
Donate
Home

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Abortion

‘For all families and gender identities’: WNBA union denounces Texas abortion ban in New York Times ad

‘This directly affects a lot of people in our league as a women’s league and a league of people with uteruses,’ the union’s first vice president said.

Nneka Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike walk together in a basketball stadium.
Nneka Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike were among the players who signed a full-page print ad in support of reproductive rights that in the New York Times on Sunday. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter

Published

2021-10-17 05:00
5:00
October 17, 2021
am

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Republish this story

“Reproductive rights are human rights. Family planning is freedom.”

This statement is at the heart of a full-page print ad that the WNBA players’ union is running  in the New York Times on Sunday against Texas’ six-week abortion ban and in support of reproductive rights, in what the player’s association executive director Terri Jackson described to The 19th as a first for the league. 

“You’ve seen the players stand up in a myriad of ways,” she said. But taking a stance in the Times, with players adding their signatures to the declaration, is new ground: “We haven’t done this before.”  

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

The ad had its debut the same day as Game 4 of the 2021 WNBA Finals and comes after Texas’ abortion ban went back into place following a temporary emergency stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. 

It also follows a greater legacy of the league paving the way within professional sports to support social justice movements and speak out against racism, much of which has been spearheaded by Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA’s first openly nonbinary and transgender player (and first vice president of the WNBPA executive committee). 

“We’re putting a stake in the ground,” Clarendon said. “This directly affects a lot of people in our league as a women’s league and a league of people with uteruses.” 

Sign up for more news and context delivered to your inbox, daily

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Preview of the daily newsletter from The 19th

He said the team wants to serve as an example for athlete advocacy, and to signal to women and people with uteruses “that they’re not alone, that people are fighting for them.”

Players within the WNBA told The Times last year that they see that legacy of foreshadowing current activism “as the natural outgrowth of who they are, a drive born of necessity in a league dominated by Black women, many of them lesbians.” 

Amira Rose Davis, professor of history and African American studies at Pennsylvania State, described the league’s cohesion and early adoption of social justice protests as “the blueprint for some of the collective action that we’re seeing now” in an episode of NPR’s Code Switch last month. 

“We’ve gotten positioned as a social justice league full of Black women who are leading the way,” Clarendon told The 19th. 

That’s both something to celebrate and a sign that everybody should be joining in, she said.  

  • More from The 19th
    President Biden holding a basketball jersey standing by members of the Seattle Storm.
  • WNBA champions are once again welcome in the White House
  • For 48 hours, abortion after 6 weeks was legal in Texas. Getting care still wasn’t easy

Many athletes have taken a stand against Texas’ law, which bans abortion access before many people realize they are pregnant. More than 500 women athletes, including WNBA members, called on the Supreme Court to uphold abortion rights in an amicus brief filed in September. 

“That was kind of the start,” Jackson said. After that, more players wanted to know more about the law and what they could do personally. 

“We just want to be an example and be a shining light, but it’s cool to see there were so many different athletes who signed that brief,” Clarendon said. 

The league partnered with Planned Parenthood and two other reproductive rights groups, plus Athletes for Impact and Seeding Sovereignty, to take out the ad. Jackson said the league is open to more advocacy against Texas’ abortion ban, but she did not elaborate on any further plans.

Clarendon said that reproductive health and family planning are also important to them personally as a parent. Watching her wife go through the process of having their child, and the process of fighting for autonomy of her body through that process, makes the fight over abortion access in Texas hit home. 

Layshia Clarendon holds a basketball and grins while she poses for a portrait.
Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA’s first openly nonbinary and transgender player, said watching her wife go through the process of having their child, and the process of fighting for autonomy of her body through that process, makes the fight over abortion access in Texas hit home. (Courtesy of Jessica Clarendon/Rapinoe Ventures)

“Even the small ways we had to battle within the healthcare system to make sure she had, and we did, a right to the way her body was treated and the way she was cared for … is wild to me,” they said.  

“Abortion, birth control, and fertility care are vital — not just for athletes who can get pregnant, but for all families and gender identities,” the ad reads, per a copy obtained by The 19th. 

“That’s why we … stand with everyone who’s fighting back against the cruel abortion bans in Texas and across the country.” 

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Recommended for you

Kyleigh Thurman talks about her medical experience at her studio.
Two women say Texas hospitals wouldn’t treat their ectopic pregnancies. Each lost a fallopian tube as a result.
People react after an abortion rights amendment to the Missouri constitution passed on November 5, 2024, at a watch party in Kansas City, Missouri.
Abortion rights won in seven states — but a Trump presidency makes them vulnerable
Democratic Senate candidate, Rep. Colin Allred speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Texas, on October 3, 2024.
Harris set to campaign in Texas with Cruz opponent Allred
Anna Zaragarian, Lauren Miller, Lauren Hall and Amanda Zurawski pose for a portrait near the Texas State Capitol.
Texas denied abortions to these women when their lives were in danger. Now they’re suing the state.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].

Become a member

Explore more coverage from The 19th
Abortion Politics Education LGBTQ+ Caregiving
View all topics

Our newsroom's Spring Member Drive is here!

Learn more about membership.

  • Transparency
    • About
    • Team
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Community Guidelines
  • Newsroom
    • Latest Stories
    • 19th News Network
    • Podcast
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Fellowships
  • Newsletters
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • The Amendment
    • Event Invites
  • Support
    • Ways to Give
    • Sponsorship
    • Republishing
    • Volunteer

The 19th is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization. Our stories are free to republish with these guidelines.