A week after tennis star and 23-times Grand Slam singles winner Serena Williams announced her pregnancy via SnapChat, she turned to Instagram to pen a touching letter to her preborn baby. Williams is expecting her first child with fiancé Alexis Ohanian in the fall.
“My Dearest Baby,” she writes. “You gave me the strength I didn’t know I had. You taught me the true meaning of serenity and peace. I can’t wait to meet you. I can’t wait for you to join the players box next year. But most importantly, I am so happy to share being number one in the world with you…. once again today. On @alexisohanian bday. ???? from the world’s oldest number one to the world’s youngest number one. -Your Mommy”
Williams was about eight weeks pregnant when she won the 2017 Australian Open. A spokeswoman for Williams told Reuters that she will not play for the duration of 2017.
Shortly after sharing the sweet note to her baby, Williams responded to what she felt was a racist attack against her preborn child by Ilie Nastase, a Romanian former world number 1 professional tennis player.
According to Romanian and British reporters, Nastase said, “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?” when speaking about Williams’ child. Williams, whose fiance is white, did not take this comment lightly.
“It disappoints me to know we live in a society in which people like Ilie Nastase can make such racist comments towards myself and unborn child, and sexist comments against my peers,” she wrote. “I have said it once and I’ll say it again, this world has come so far but yet we have so much further to go. Yes, we have broken down so many barriers — however there are a plethora more to go.”
As Williams defends her preborn child and thanks the yet-to-be-born baby for giving her strength and teaching her about peace, the world around them continues to see preborn babies as items to be tossed in the trash when they aren’t as loved and adored by their mothers as Williams’ baby is.
Ironically, Planned Parenthood, the organization responsible for the majority of killings of preborn babies in the country, shared an article stating that Williams’ victory while pregnant “reminds us how amazing women’s bodies are.” But if Planned Parenthood really believed that women were amazing and capable of anything, they wouldn’t be working so hard to tell women that they aren’t strong enough to raise their own children if those children are conceived at inopportune times.
Rather than provide women with prenatal care and resources to help them and their babies, Planned Parenthood kills their children because it is more lucrative. While the organization claims to provide cancer screenings and other services, the fact is that those numbers are dropping while its abortion numbers are rising. While breast exams at Planned Parenthood fell 60.7 percent between 2004 and 2014 and Pap tests declined 77 percent, Planned Parenthood’s number of abortions rose 27 percent.
If Planned Parenthood stepped up and helped women love and accept their children as Williams does maybe we could actually believe that they view and treat women as strong and capable like they want us to.
