Sportswomen Sterile?

A fact: most women who are skilful in vigorous sports do not have babies. Another fact: some able sportswomen do have babies. For lack of reliable vital statistics it is moot whether the lack of babies among women athletes is a social or a biological phenomenon.

Nonetheless, the semi-official Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, last week announced to the Roman Catholic world that Roman Catholic women must henceforth renounce athletics. The theory: excessive sports make single women sterile and reduce the possibilities of married women having more children. Pontificated the Vatican newspaper: "The excess of effort and fatigue is today aggravated by all the rest of modern life, since now tobacco and alcohol intoxicate the anatomic elements in women no less than in man." This proscription does not apply to Roman Catholic men, for whom the Pope, once a virile climber of mountains, stands as an impeccable example.

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