Are female athletes allowed to get pregnant?

[Jibjabb]

Ive been wondering whether their contracts allow them to or not, professionals only of course. Mostly concerned with team sport athletes like soccer and basketball players, since they are paid annually Id assume. I cant imagine an owner of a team being very happy that the team gets to the championship game and some of the players are missing because they got knocked up.

[koodledrum]

Generally speaking "peak" athletes will try to avoid it, but atleast in the UK it would be illegal to say "you must not fall pregnant" or to actually cancel the athlete's contract as a result of pregnancy, it would break laws surrounding employment rights of women forbidding such action in the workplace. I know there was atleast one female footballer who missed the 2012 Olympics as she was pregnant (only to be asked by a fuckwit of a TV presenter if she regretted it) and I know Scotland's most famous female player has twice taken time out to have children. Bearing in mind that pregnancy while an immediate danger once the athlete has had the child she essentially can return to normal, it's not like "oops, I've dropped a kid, that's me 10 seconds off my PB forever" - just means that for most sports they have to take the gestation period "off" the actual sport.

[Deleted]

Im not sure that it can be included in a signed legal contract but you aren't going to be making many friends if half way through a season you have to quit playing because your pregnant. You find that some elite athletes actually have difficulty getting pregnant while they are training hard due to changes in the body.

[jbhasban]

It would be illegal in the USA to have a pregnancy clause much like they couldnt have a clause that says an athlete cant be overweight. That isnt to say they cant be fired for the side effects of being pregnant or overweight. You would have to hope that a jury could distinguish the difference between firing someone for being pregnant and firing someone for not being able to perform, though. I wouldn't trust a jury to do that.

[koodledrum]

Im not sure that it can be included in a signed legal contract but you aren't going to be making many friends if half way through a season you have to quit playing because your pregnant. You find that some elite athletes actually have difficulty getting pregnant while they are training hard due to changes in the body.

You'll find that in a womens locker room, as soon as any player said they were pregnant you'd probably find that rather than alienation that their team mates would support them 100% as most would likely want to be mothers at some point in their life, the only place they're likely to become unpopular is with upper management and ultimately players generally won't give a toss about them.

It can also be applied to other areas, pregnancy is one factor which will shut someone down from their activity but it can just as easily be serious injury or serious illness - again you wouldn't find anything other than support in either of those situations.

[Deleted]

This isn't strictly on topic, but I have heard of athletes getting pregnant and then having an abortion. The physiological effects of pregnancy can make a significant impact upon performance. It's known as aborition doping, and while banned, it's almost impossible to police.