Earlier this week, Instagram model Paige Jordae publicly posted a message sent to her by Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards insisting that she get an abortion even though she didn’t want one. Lila Rose of Live Action posted screenshots of the messages:
The messages make for tough reading. Edwards responds to Jordae saying she has a doctor’s appointment with “can’t do dis” and tells her to “get an abortion lol.” Jordae responds: “Honestly I had an abortion with my son around 2 years ago and I regret it every day.” Edwards doesn’t care, replying: “Man you can’t force a kid in da world. You don’t know what it’s is yet.”
“That’s not the point I said I had an abortion 2 years ago and I regret it,” Jordae told him. “Yea but I don’t want a kid,” Edwards replies, ignoring the fact that he does, in fact, already have a kid. He offers her money to have an abortion: “I don’t want kids. Let’s handle this like grownups.” She caves: “Okay … I’m not trying to force u to be a dad to a baby u don’t want I just don’t like abortions that doesn’t make me wrong. If u really don’t wanna do this then fine … I won’t.”
The rest of the messages appear to detail Edwards demanding video confirmation that she has taken abortion pills. She sends him a photo of a baby: “look how cute tho” with a broken-heart emoji. His response: “Send da video.” He repeats this several more times and tells her to “Just take the pills.” According to another screenshot Jordae posted, Edwards allegedly sent her a transfer for $100,000 to have the abortion. Her feelings on the matter — the fact that she wanted the baby and didn’t want to have an abortion due to her regret from her last experience — meant nothing.
Edwards has now responded to the public screenshots: “I made comments in the heat of a moment that are not me, and that are not aligned with what I believe and who I want to be as a man. All women should be supported and empowered to make their own decisions about their bodies and what is best for them. I am handling my personal matters privately and will not be commenting on them any further at this time.” This is despite the fact that the messages are, clearly, precisely who he is and aligned with what he believes — it seems unlikely that this is the first time Edwards has made an arrangement like this.
The story reminds me of the 2013 revelations that J.J. Redick of the Los Angeles Clippers had his girlfriend Vanessa Lopez sign an “abortion contract” in which she would agree to abort their child and in return Reddick would “attempt” to keep dating Lopez for 12 months after the abortion. Failing that, Reddick would have to pay her $25,000. Redick, now an analyst for ESPN, took some heat after the news broke, but there were also plenty of supporters — after all, if abortion is merely health care, then why would an abortion contract be perverse?
This Edwards-Jordae story, however, reminds us of something abortion activists and feminists refuse to acknowledge: that although they champion feticide under the banner of “choice,” choice often has very little to do with it. The Charlotte Lozier Institute found this year that “nearly 70% of abortions are coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with women’s preferences.” For many women, abortion is not simply a “choice” — it is an expectation, or even an obligation. As long as they have the option of aborting the baby, men taking advantage of our era of “sexual liberation” expect the women whom they use to “take care of it.” Or, as Edwards put it, to “handle this like grownups.”
