South Florida’s Acosta-Ruiz, Richards-Ross detail personal reasons behind abortion decisions
Two high-profile women with ties to South Florida detailed their personal stories regarding abortion.
M.J. Acosta-Ruiz, a former Dolphins cheerleader and current NFL Network studio host, and Sanya Richards-Ross, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas alumna, were on the YouTube show, “Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho.”
The episode on Acho’s channel was uploaded Sunday and runs more than 27 minutes. In it, Acho opens a conversation with four women — Acosta-Ruiz, Richards-Ross, Dr. Yeni Abraham and Pastor Chelsea Smith — about abortion following the United States Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June.
The Supreme Court’s decision “stripped away women’s constitutional protection for abortion,” that was established nearly 50 years ago and returned the choice to individual states, the Associated Press reported.
According to the Washington Post, 13 states had trigger bans in place to begin when Roe v. Wade was struck down, while abortion is “likely to be protected” and legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
On the latest episode on Acho’s channel, which has nearly 600,000 subscribers, Acosta-Ruiz revealed for the first time on a public forum that she had an abortion at the age of 20, because “I didn’t have the financial means of supporting a child.”
“I had just dropped out of college,” she said. “So very much a point in my life where I was lost. My parents are immigrants. They immigrated to this country well into their 30s, leaving behind very good careers in their homeland for opportunities for me. So there was so much going on at that point in time where I felt like I was already letting them down in so many different ways.
“And then I found out I was pregnant. And I just remember thinking, my parents did not do all of this to bring me here for me to now bring a child and for them to be in poverty, for them to suffer and for me to suffer along with them. And so I very quickly decided that abortion was the way for me to go.”
Richards-Ross said she had an abortion in 2008, because she wasn’t ready to be a mom.
“From the age of 9, the one sole dream that always felt very real to me was becoming an Olympic champion,” Richards-Ross said. “For me in that moment, when I found out I was pregnant right before I left for Beijing [for the 2008 Olympics], I felt like I was in an impossible situation because I knew I was with my forever. I was with my soon-to-be husband [former NFL player Aaron Ross]. I knew I wanted to have a family with him, but I also wanted to be an Olympic champion more than anything.”
“The day before I left for Beijing, I had an abortion. And as a woman who also identifies as a Christian woman, who tries to be Christlike, I never ever thought I would be in that situation. It was, it still is really hard for me to talk about it, but I am grateful that I had the choice ... because although it was very, very hard for me and I think it was a big part of why I didn’t win gold, because I didn’t think I deserved it. So the one race I lost, the Olympic final, was the race I wanted the most.”
Acho asked Richards-Ross why she thought she didn’t deserve it and she said, “because I had just done the one thing I thought I’d never do.”
Richards-Ross, who has a child with her husband, is on the “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” and one of the story lines features the couple talking about having another child.
To watch the full interview, which includes how Abraham had a medical abortion to save her life and other topics in the conversation, click here or watch below:
