Simone Biles.Photo: Nathan Congleton//NBCUniversal via Getty
Simone Bilesis making it clear that shesupports the right to abortion.
On Monday,the Olympic gymnast, 24, had asked her Instagram followers to submit “unpopular opinions” so she could give her own take on them. The first few questions were on topics like ketchup and Beyoncé, but one user wrote to Biles, “abortion is wrong.”
In response, Biles shared a lengthy post about why she’s “very much pro-choice.”
“I already know this is going to start the biggest argument and may even lose followers BUT. I’m very much pro-choice. Your body. Your choice,” she wrote.
“Also for everyone [who’s] gonna say ‘just put it up for adoption,’ " she started, adding eye-rolling emojis, “it’s not that easy and coming from someone who was in the foster care system TRUST me.”
Simone Biles.Simone Biles/Instagram
“Foster care system is broken and it’s TOUGH. Especially on the kids and young adults who age out. And adoption is expensive … I’m just saying.”
The seven-time Olympic medalist also added: “and don’t even come at me if you couldn’t keep a mask on or refused to wear one.”
As Biles predicted, she started getting negative reactions on Instagram and Twitter, including a since-deleted tweet that claimed she was advocating for people to get abortions rather than put their child in the foster system.
“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 else’s body/decision,” she said.
“I have forever and will continue to support foster kids. AS I WAS ONE,” Biles continued. “I’ve been an advocate for foster kids and the system but you wouldn’t know that because you don’t follow me, you just like to open your mouth.”
Biles told PEOPLE in 2017that the foster system was “difficult” on her and her siblings.
“I was so young, I didn’t quite understand what was going on,” she said. “But I recall some of the kids coming to the foster home with only the clothes on their back and a backpack. It’s hard going into the system with hardly anything, because even though foster parents may receive a stipend, sometimes it’s not enough to cover all the necessities.”
For Biles and her siblings,they were often going hungry, she said this year in an episode of her Facebook Watch series,Simone Vs. Herself.
“Growing up, me and my siblings were so focused on food because we didn’t have a lot of food,” she said. “I remember there was this cat around the house and I’d be so hungry. They would feed this cat and I’m like, ‘Where the heck is my food?’ "
source: people.com
