Conspiracy theory: After being adopted herself and experiencing a wonderful life in that situation why would she suddenly come out as FOR abortion? Did she maybe find out some news after Olympic testing that made her change her mind and it is being kept hushed up and is the reason she really pulled out of competition? Hmmmm
Having a son born with cognitive disabilities - some of the people I know in support groups have conjectured Simone might, also. My son has skills and talents but he also has difficulty with self-control, judgment and social interaction. It may well be that she knows she cannot function without certain medication, and the Tokyo people aren't going to let her compete while using them.
That's my "conspiracy theory" on why she dropped out of competitions. What I don't know is, why she would DO that AFTER making the team.
She is also much older than most gymnasts are in the Olympics and by the next round she'll be about the oldest female gymnast around. While average age of participants has been increasing for forty years - it's probably not going to go past mid-20's (currently around 20).
But to the OP - I'm guessing, that, like a lot of people, she doesn't connect the two issues. Most of the time, they connect them when it's a talking point for either side. People make up their minds about abortion. Period. Anything else is a separate issue in their minds - or they do what most people do, rearrange what they believe to support their stated stance on abortion.
I can't judge whether or not the foster system is broken - it's a workable solution to perhaps an insolvable problem. Children are placed in foster care for any number of reasons, but the root of it is crisis. Death, abandonment, prison, poverty - a child in foster care is likely to have undergone things most kids don't face, and you can't "solve" it sometimes. I easily know a dozen people who grew up in foster care, including my own two foster brothers. One of them is still a mess; the other is doing well, married, family, owns his own business, doing VERY well financially. It is a much better than the orphanage system, where kids very often NEVER know family. THAT is the reason why I do support same sex couples adopting and fostering - no matter what you might think, having ANY family is much better than never having one. I've seen the stats.
