Current:Home > FinanceWNBA commissioner sidesteps question on All-Star Game in Arizona - an anti-abortion state -MarketStream
WNBA commissioner sidesteps question on All-Star Game in Arizona - an anti-abortion state
View
Date:2025-04-17 15:58:25
For a league so outspoken about women’s rights, it might surprise people to learn that the WNBA will hold the 2024 All-Star Game in Phoenix.
Just last week, the Arizona Supreme Court voted to enforce a near-total abortion ban that dates to 1864, a decision that does not reflect the values of one of the nation's most progressive professional sports leagues.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert did not answer a question about if the league discussed moving the 2024 All-Star Game during her pre-draft remarks to media Monday night. The game is scheduled for July 20 and was announced in March.
The law — which was written before Arizona was part of the United States — is part of the continued ripple effect of the Dobbs decision, the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. That ruling put the fate of reproductive rights back in the hands of individual states. In the nearly two years since the ruling, numerous states have issued total or near-total abortion bans, with some states going so far as to prosecute women who get abortions and the people, including doctors, who help them obtain one.
Throughout it all, WNBA players — as well as numerous other professional athletes, male and female — have been outspoken about their support for women’s reproductive rights.
And that will continue according to Engelbert, even if a major league event is being held in a state with a draconian law.
“One thing I like about our players is our players want to be engaged, they don’t run away from things, they want to be engaged and want to force change in the communities in which they live and work, and they do it very effectively,” Engelbert said Monday during her pre-draft chat with reporters. “Obviously we have a team there (in Arizona) as well, and they’ll continue to make their impact on this particular issue, maternal health and reproductive rights.”
MORE:Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, WNBA draft prospects visit Empire State Building
MORE:Serena Williams says she'd 'be super-interested' in owning a WNBA team
In 2017, the NBA moved its All-Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina, to New Orleans after a so-called “bathroom bill” barred transgender people from using the bathroom that matched their gender identity.
But since that All-Star game the NBA has held events in other states unfriendly to both women’s rights and LGBTQ rights (the 2023 All-Star game was in Utah, for example), reasoning that they can’t constantly move things because the next state could have an equally bad bill on the books; All-Star games are typically scheduled a year in advance. Additionally, moving a major event out of state won’t necessarily force or encourage lawmakers to vote the opposite way.
The WNBA isn’t the only women’s pro league holding major events and keeping teams in red states, either: The NWSL plays in Texas and Florida, and numerous NCAA women’s championship events are scheduled for red states in the coming years, too.
Abortion rights groups have said abandoning states with these laws doesn’t help because the laws don’t necessarily reflect the people who live there.
“I’ve heard time and time again from reproductive rights workers that they don’t want folks to pull out from their states. They don’t want to be in isolation,” said Heather Shumaker, director of State Abortion Access for the National Women’s Law Center.
“Using any opportunity to be vocal about the importance of abortion access” helps, Shumaker told USA TODAY Sports last year. “Use your platform, whether that’s social media, wearing a wristband or armband — whatever tool is in your toolbox, use that to uplift attention on abortion access.”
Engelbert said that’s exactly what WNBA players intend to do.
“Our players won’t run away from it,” she said. “They’ll want to help effect change and use our platform and their platform to do just that.”
Nancy Armour reported from New York.
veryGood! (2725)
Related
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- Cause of death revealed for star U.S. swimmer Jamie Cail in Virgin Islands
- How Chadwick Boseman's Private Love Story Added Another Layer to His Legacy
- Double threat shapes up as Tropical Storm Idalia and Hurricane Franklin intensify
- Person accused of accosting Rep. Nancy Mace at Capitol pleads not guilty to assault charge
- Youth soccer parent allegedly attacks coach with metal water bottle
- Tropical Storm Idalia forms in the Gulf of Mexico
- Fire rescue helicopter crashes into building in Florida; 2 dead, 2 hospitalized
- Billy Bean was an LGBTQ advocate and one of baseball's great heroes
- A Milwaukee bar is offering free booze every time Aaron Rodgers and the Jets lose
Ranking
- Hidden Home Gems From Kohl's That Will Give Your Space a Stylish Refresh for Less
- How Motherhood Has Brought Gigi Hadid and Blake Lively Even Closer
- Joe the Plumber, who questioned Obama's tax plans during 2008 campaign, dead at 49
- News outlet asks court to dismiss former Mississippi governor’s defamation lawsuit
- NHL in ASL returns, delivering American Sign Language analysis for Deaf community at Winter Classic
- NYPD warns it has zero tolerance for drones at the US Open
- Judge dismisses lawsuit by sorority sisters who sought to block a transgender woman from joining
- Fighting in eastern Syria between US-backed fighters and Arab tribesmen kills 10
Recommendation
Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
Former Pirates majority owner and newspaper group publisher G. Ogden Nutting has died at 87
Drea de Matteo, Adriana La Cerva on 'The Sopranos,' launches OnlyFans account
Is palm oil bad for you? Here's why you're better off choosing olive oil.
Euphoria's Hunter Schafer Says Ex Dominic Fike Cheated on Her Before Breakup
Horoscopes Today, August 28, 2023
CBS New York speaks to 3 women who attended the famed March on Washington
Watch: Lifelong Orioles fan Joan Jett calls scoring play, photobombs the team