Catholic World News News Feature
Athletes Use Abortion To Boost Performance February 04, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 4, 02 (LSN.ca/CWNews.com) - In the February 4 issue of Report magazine, "Brave New World" columnist Celeste McGovern writes of a gruesome method of blood doping used by some female Olympic athletes to boost athletic performance, getting pregnant then having an abortion. Since performance-enhancing drugs and even regular blood doping can be identified by regulators, the pregnancy-abortion scheme, while officially banned, is virtually impossible to stop.
Mona Passignano, director of research at the Texas pro-life group Life Dynamics is quoted by Report quoting from a Finnish sports medicine expert: "Now that drug testing is routine, pregnancy is becoming the favorite way of getting an edge on competition." One Russian athlete told a reporter that as long ago as the 1970s, gymnasts as young as 14 were ordered to sleep with their coaches to get pregnant--and then abort. The procedure is so well known it has made it to the textbooks. LifeSite found the method described in an online textbook in physiology by Dr. Poul-Erik Paulev of the Department of Medical Physiology, University of Copenhagen.
Professor Paulev writes that pregnancy seems to increase muscle strength in female athletes. "Female top athletes-- just following the time when they gave birth to their first child-- have set several world records. Of course, this is acceptable as a natural and unintended event. However, in some countries female athletes have become pregnant for 2-3 months, in order to improve their performance just after the abortion."
