Simone Biles has just returned from the Tokyo Olympic Games with a bronze medal for women’s balance beam and a silver for the artistic team all-around, and she’s already owning people online.
The gymnast asked her fans for their “unpopular opinions” on her Instagram Story on August 9. One user decided to go get political and responded “abortion is wrong” with a smiley face. Ahh, trolling with abortion. Smells like 2005.
Biles, however, decided that she would make her opinions on the topic known, despite the fact that it would start an argument and possibly have her lose followers. She said, “I’m very much pro-choice. Your body. Your choice.”
The acclaimed athlete could have left it at that, but she continued:
“Also for everyone gonna say ‘just put it up for adoption,'” she added with a string of rolling eyes emojis. “It’s not that easy & coming from someone who was in the foster care system TRUST me. [The] foster care system is broken & it’s TOUGH. Especially on the kids & young adults who age out.”
“[And] adoption is expensive … I’m just saying. [And] don’t even come at me if you couldn’t keep a mask on or refused to wear one,” she added. (via Hello Giggles)
All of that seemed pretty clear to me, but of course, the bad faith trolls were ready to take her statement to an absurd extreme, implying that she was saying to abort children rather than put them in foster care.
DO NOT misconstrue my words. That is not at all what I implied. I did NOT say I support to abort rather than to put them through the foster care system. What I did imply is that you should not control someone elses body/decision. Let’s be real what you care about is control… https://t.co/IWVz0ydpXi
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) August 10, 2021
Biles has been very candid about her background. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone and her three other children, and all four went in and out of foster care. Simone Biles was only 3 years old when she entered the system and has previously stated that her mother was addicted to drugs and was in and out of jail.
Ron and Nellie, her maternal grandparents, adopted Simone and her sister, Adria, three years after they entered foster care. Their older siblings, Tevin and Ashley, were adopted by Ron’s sister. Biles and her family have firsthand experience with exactly how hard it is to be in the foster system and the fight to be adopted, even by family.
Too often people treat the choice of putting a child up for adoption as if it magically just happens. The foster system is run by overworked civil servants who are underpaid. Children from many different backgrounds and experiences are put together. It can be traumatic, and it is not being well funded. So if you are anti-choice maybe considering donating and advocating for the social workers in your communities.
Much more productive than starting a fight with a young woman who actually experienced the system.
(via Hello Giggles, image: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
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