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Inside the players’ response to the LPGA’s Roe v. Wade stance

KMPG PGA Championship winner In Gee Chun putts on the 18th green of the major’s final round in June. (Montana Pritchard/PGA of America)

On Friday, June 24, six-year LPGA Tour veteran Lauren Kim sat scrolling through Instagram. As she processed the ramifications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, overturning the 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade that guaranteed women the right to an abortion at a federal level, she clicked on friend Michelle Wie West’s Instagram story.

The first post celebrated the engagement of one of Wie West’s friends.

Tap — a comment on the devastation of Roe V. Wade.

Another tap — an announcement of a new product launch.

Kim texted Wie West afterward, explaining how her Instagram stories poignantly reflected Kim’s own experience with the news, as she attempted to process a life-altering Supreme Court decision while going about her day.

That message set off a chain of events culminating in over 20 LPGA players sharing a statement the following Tuesday that decried the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson and advocated for women’s reproductive rights as “human rights.” After the LPGA’s own delayed and all-encompassing response to the ruling, players didn’t want their voices to get lost in the shuffle. The final impetus came from a conversation with LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who explained the tour’s stance and encouraged them to share their personal views separately.

“I can kind of say as a blanket statement,” Kim said, “that a lot of us did feel like it was so hard to be part of a women’s organization and not have a stance on this.”

When the Supreme Court handed down the decision on June 24, the LPGA was in the middle of the second round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., only 12 miles away from the Supreme Court.

A Golfweek reporter approached 2017 rookie Mariah Stackhouse after she finished her round that day and was the first to notify her of the landmark decision.

“My response to that was definitely extremely raw,” Stackhouse said. “I didn’t have much time to really think over it.”

Stackhouse then called Kim, who wasn’t in the field for the PGA Championship, and they spoke for 30 minutes about the ramifications of the ruling. Later, another friend texted Kim a screenshot of a Golf.com reporter’s tweet that the LPGA didn’t plan to release a statement. Unsure if that meant no statement on the day of the decision or no statement period, Kim continued to ponder courses of action.

“I think there being possibly no statement was what kind of spurred our whole statement and feeling this responsibility to speak out,” she said.

Kim jotted down some thoughts reacting to what went on that day.

On Saturday morning, per Kim, the LPGA’s commissioner reached out to Wie West to explain that the tour was working on a statement. Marcoux Samaan confirmed she had spoken “to the board on this issue.”

Marcoux Samaan then appeared on NBC for an interview about the state of the PGA Championship but didn’t discuss the ruling.

The tour released its statement Saturday evening on social media. It didn’t mention reproductive rights or abortion, but rather highlighted that important women’s rights issues were now being addressed at the state level.

Kim and Marina Alex, who gave the LPGA feedback on the statement and passed it along to players, felt the tour did its best to encompass everyone’s perspectives.

“It becomes very difficult at that point to make any kind of statement that you feel has a lot of — I don’t want to say substance — but it’s hard for it to come from the heart when you’re trying to make sure that you are equally representing everyone that the tour body represents,” Alex said.

As the players began crafting a statement of their own, Wie West took on the bulk of the writing, while Kim and Lee contributed their thoughts.

Kim then scheduled a phone call with Marcoux Samaan and another player for Sunday. The commissioner, less than a year into her role, explained in detail to Kim why the tour’s statement included that particular phrasing.

“She’s very diplomatic,” Kim explained. “She said, ‘You know what? I can’t physically put out a statement just on my views. I have to take into account that there are players on the tour that believe that this is something to be celebrated. And if we have players on tour who believe that, then putting out a statement on behalf of the tour, it can’t be pro-choice in that regard.’”

Marcoux Samaan, she said, also encouraged the players to use their platforms to advocate for what they believed.

“I think we all took that as permission to post,” Kim said.

When asked to comment on her conversations with Kim that weekend, Marcoux Samaan did not confirm or deny that they spoke.

“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on private conversations with players,” Marcoux Samaan wrote via email. “We will always advocate for women’s rights, inclusion and equality as an organization.”

Kim, Lee and Wie West sought more feedback from players to see who might be open to sharing a player-driven statement, and to ensure their words did not come across as pointing the finger at the LPGA or blaming the tour writ large. Rather, they wanted it to express what they felt as female athletes at a crucial moment for women’s rights. Twenty of their peers ended up reaching out with their thoughts.

The day after the major championship concluded Sunday, some players stayed behind for the second Renee Powell Clearview Legacy Benefit.

The LPGA-promoted event raises money for the Clearview Legacy Foundation and the endowment for Clearview course, which Powell’s father founded in 1948 in East Canton, Ohio, after facing racial discrimination at other golf courses. Powell joins Stackhouse as two of eight Black players in the 72-year history of the LPGA, and the only two active Black players on tour.

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Mariah Stackhouse speaks at the Renee Powell Clearview Legacy Benefit immediately following the PGA Championship. (Elsa/Getty Images)

“When you look at the juxtaposition of that and the LPGA non-statement that they put out regarding Roe V. Wade, I feel like as a woman’s organization, it’s incredibly important to be bold,” Stackhouse said. “Oftentimes, we as women are the only people that are going to speak for us as women. We talk a lot about equality on the LPGA Tour, raising our purses, the disparity between the opportunities that men and women have in golf, the pay opportunities, financial limits men and women have.

“We’re always talking about the importance of progression. And so when you have a ruling like this, where we’ve regressed to 50-plus years in the past, to read a statement that felt timid, fearful, a statement that held none of the attributes that go with unapologetic boldness and, affirmation towards a woman’s right to complete autonomy over our personal choices, that was very disappointing.”

Wie West reached out to Stackhouse on Monday morning to let her know that a statement was forthcoming and to encourage her to spread the word to other players at the event.

Allisen Corpuz joined in on the conversations with fellow players at the benefit. Abortion rights hit close to home for the rookie, whose mom once had an ectopic pregnancy that required an abortion. After putting her emotions to the side while competing at the PGA Championship, Corpuz started researching and compiling data points Monday night as soon as she landed in Los Angeles.

“I was just really angry, and at first I didn’t know if I was gonna post it or not,” she said. “Then I saw the player statement [and was] really happy with a player statement, but at the same time, I felt that I had a lot more to say, especially with the story about my mom.”

Wie West, Kim, Lee and Alex texted the final draft of the player statement to those they knew had expressed interest. By Monday night, their statement had evolved from a gut reaction to a thoughtful response that expressed their hopes for a future in which all women get the health care they need.

“[Wie West] said her eyeballs were burning after the weekend,” Kim said. “We were just going back and forth, just constantly on the phone.”

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Michelle Wie West led the writing of the players' statement. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

As they passed along the statement, the group asked each player to share the post on Tuesday morning and to add their own thoughts to their captions.

“I feel like if I didn’t say more than just [the LPGA’s statement],” Alex said, “I’m not doing my job as someone with a bit of a platform.

“I don’t have a huge platform, but I do have some, so I feel like it’s a bit of a social and moral responsibility to speak on behalf of some of those women out there that probably are not able to say anything.”

Current and former LPGA players Kay Cockerill, Gemma Dryburgh, Lily He, Pat Hurst, Bronte Law, Jeehae Lee, Brittany Lincicome, Meg Mallon, Suzann Pettersen, Mel Reid, Jenny Shin, Charlotte Thomas, Albane Valenzuela, Alison Walshe and Karrie Webb joined Alex, Kim, Lee, Stackhouse and Wie West in sharing the post to their accounts.

Other players, caddies and LPGA staff members then circulated it on their Instagram stories, a gesture that gave Stackhouse and others a glimmer of hope during a trying time.

“I think especially within the golf community, it’s not always easy to be bold and confident in any progressive ideology because there’s going to be a lot of pushback in the golf space,” Stackhouse said. “And so to see everyone who decided that they were going to stand for what they believed in at that moment, even if it was very uncomfortable, it made me proud. Especially when following the LPGA statement that came out, and there was nothing really that I could be proud of there.”

The commissioner also appreciated the players’ gesture.

“Our players are leaders and role models and I am proud that they used their platforms to advocate on this important issue as we encouraged them to do in our statement on June 25th,” she wrote via email.

Corpuz was motivated to follow through with her own statement after seeing the reception on social media. She had a few friends scan the nearly 1,300 words she drafted, which ranged from the emotions of her mom’s story, to her thoughts about limiting the number of safe abortions, to the trauma of carrying a conception through sexual violence to term, to her love for the tour and her disappointment in the LPGA’s statement.

She posted it on Wednesday, June 29, and then avoided Instagram for the next six hours, only occasionally swiping in and back out in under two seconds.

“I think that I probably was in more of a position to speak about it just because I’m a rookie,” Corpuz said. “I don’t really have too many sponsors to worry about upsetting right now, honestly. I think that’s probably a big reason why other girls aren’t super public about all politics, not just the topic of abortion.”

Reflecting on the process behind the statement, the players were proud of how it came together and that it resonated while not putting the onus on the LPGA.

But they weren’t done.

After the coordinated posts on Tuesday, 12 players met with Marcoux Samaan over Zoom — including one who was anti-abortion — in a prescheduled Diversity Council meeting. The group, which Wie West put together, met for the first time at the DIO Implant LA Open back in late April.

In the call with Marcoux Samaan, many sought to get across that, while they understood the LPGA’s need for neutrality given the current political climate and the fact that its members do not share all of the same views, the tour’s silence during the apex of a crisis created some of the loudest noise in women’s sports.

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Lauren Kim has been a leader in these efforts from the beginning. (Michael Cohen/Getty Images)

In the future, those same players hope the LPGA will be quicker to respond as they work together to figure out what role the tour plays in a time of crisis. In reference to the Diversity Council meeting, Marcoux Samaan again declined to comment on private conversations with players.

Since then, the conversation has continued, with multiple sources confirming that there was a players-only meeting Monday night, during which Roe v. Wade was discussed.

“It’s fine if it’s neutral, but I think it needed to come within hours of the decision,” Kim said. “We’ve made the LPGA very aware of that. I think that’s something that is not going to be fixed. It can’t retroactively be fixed, and it won’t be fixed until something like this happens again.

“But I think the timing of things in these situations is really important. And particularly as a women’s sports organization, silence speaks volumes.”

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

WNBA Preseason Games End as Teams Make Final 2025 Roster Cuts

Atlanta rookie Te-Hina Paopao drives down the court during a 2025 WNBA preseason game.
Atlanta Dream rookie Te-Hina PaoPao scored 14 points against Indiana on Saturday. (Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images)

There's just one WNBA preseason game left on the 2025 calendar, as 12 of the league's 13 teams wrapped exhibition play over the weekend ahead of Friday's regular-season tip-off.

The Chicago Sky became the latest team to lock in their 12-player roster on Sunday, joining the likes of the Indiana Fever in making tough final cuts.

To reach league compliance, Chicago waived Australian guard Alex Wilson, 2024 second-round draft pick Jessika Carter (Mississippi State), and former Mercury forward Morgan Bertsch.

Earning their official spots in the Sky's lineup are 2025 rookies Hailey Van Lith (TCU) and Maddy Westbeld (Notre Dame), the overall No. 11 and No. 16 picks, respectively, in April's draft.

Overall, the class of 2025 is performing well so far, with all first-round picks avoiding early roster cuts — though many teams are still deciding who will suit up on opening day.

Some second-rounders are also showing significant promise, with the Atlanta Dream's 18th overall pick Te-Hina PaoPao (South Carolina) scoring a team-leading 14 points against Indiana on Saturday.

How to watch the final 2025 WNBA preseason game

Capping the 2025 WNBA preseason are the reigning champion New York Liberty, who will take on Japan's Toyota Antelopes on Monday night.

The exhibition will see Liberty stars Sabrina Ionescu and Nyara Sabally — who notably saw her contract extended through 2026 by New York on Monday afternoon — return to their University of Oregon alma mater for the clash.

The Liberty will tip off against the Antelopes at 10 PM ET, with live coverage airing on WNBA League Pass.

FIFA Expands 2031 Women’s World Cup Field, Sanctions Afghan Refugee Team

The attendance of 75,784 is shown above the 2023 World Cup semifinal between Australia and England.
The World Cup field will expand to 48 teams in 2031. (Mark Metcalfe - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

The 2031 Women's World Cup will expand to 48 teams, with the 16-team increase announced among other landmark decisions by the FIFA Council on Friday.

The decision to expand the World Cup aims to "broaden representation, offering more nations and players access to elite competition and accelerating investment in women's football worldwide," according to the FIFA release.

"The FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, the first in which teams from all confederations won at least one game and teams from five confederations reached the knockout stage, among many other records, set a new standard for global competitiveness," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"This decision ensures we are maintaining the momentum in terms of growing women’s football globally."

The expanded 2031 World Cup, hosted by the US, will adopt a 12-group format, increasing the total number of matches from 64 to 104 while extending the competition for an additional week.

The World Cup expansion announcement comes on the heels of last month's increased Olympic tournament news, with the IOC boosting the women's soccer field to 16 teams at the 2028 LA Games.

The decision also puts the women's competition in line with the men's World Cup, which will feature FIFA's first 48-team tournament in 2026.

Afghan women's soccer team founder and director Khalida Popal speaks at a 2023 event surrounded by the squad in Australia.
FIFA is creating an official refugee team for evacuated Afghan women's players. (Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

FIFA approves Afghan women's refugee team

In the same Friday announcement, the FIFA Council also approved the creation of an Afghanistan women's refugee team, which would provide evacuated Afghan women players the ability to compete on an officially recognized FIFA team.

While FIFA requires that national federations sponsor teams, the Afghan Football Federation ceased acknowledging its women's team once the Taliban-controlled government banned women's sports.

Originally formed by the country's Olympic Committee in 2007, the Afghanistan women's national team has not played a FIFA-recognized match since 2018, and most of its athletes fled the country amidst the Taliban's second takeover in 2021.

Since then, players have petitioned FIFA for the opportunity to compete. Their efforts earned a one-year trial phase from the governing body on Friday, though the success of the program could see it expanded to refugees from other nations in the future.

"We are happy that FIFA has created a pathway for Afghan players to finally return to the field," team founder and former captain Khalida Popal told CNN on Friday, adding that the squad "remain[s] hopeful FIFA can amend its statutes to provide official recognition for our players as the Afghanistan Women's National Team."

Popal — who helped hundreds of Afghans, including the team, escape the Taliban — previously said the team "could show the world that Afghan women and girls belong in sport, in school and everywhere in society — and we will not be defeated."

Unbeaten Chelsea FC Wins 2024/25 WSL Season

Millie Bright raises Chelsea's 2024/25 WSL trophy and celebrates with her teammates.
Chelsea's undefeated 2024/25 season is the winningest in WSL history. (Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Chelsea FC is the first team in Women's Super League (WSL) history to claim an unbeaten 22-game season, adding the undefeated moniker to their sixth-straight league title with Saturday's 1-0 win over Liverpool.

The Blues' perfect season joins the previous unbeaten campaigns of 2012's Arsenal, 2016's Manchester City, and Chelsea's own 2018 squad — though those three teams did so in 14, 16, and 18 games, respectively.

Chelsea finishes the 2024/25 campaign with an astounding 19 wins and three draws, missing just six possible points on the table en route to their new WSL record of 60 points in a single season.

"As a manager, players, and staff, you only live these moments maybe once in your life," said Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor following Saturday's history-making win. "You need to enjoy it because it is a great achievement."

Trailing Chelsea's impressive winning tally by a full 12 points, Arsenal secured second place with a 4-3 victory over third-place Manchester United in their Saturday season finale.

Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey poses with her 2024/25 WSL Player of the Season award.
The first-ever WSL Player of the Season award went to Arsenal's Mariona Caldentey. (Paul Harding - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

WSL standouts secure individual 2024/25 awards

Though they missed the WSL's team trophy, the Gunners did claim some individual hardware this weekend, as voters selected midfielder Mariona Caldentey as the inaugural winner of the WSL Player of the Season award.

The 29-year-old Spain international led the league in shot creation, and put up nine goals and five assists on the WSL stat sheet this season.

Caldentey's teammate Alessia Russo also walked away with a trophy, sharing the Golden Boot with fourth-place Manchester City's Khadija "Bunny" Shaw after both forwards scored 12 goals each on the season.

Also sharing a stat-sheet title is Chelsea's Hannah Hampton and Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who claimed the 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove award behind 13 clean sheets apiece.

Meanwhile, the season's WSL Rising Star award went to ninth-place West Ham striker Shekiera Martinez. After spending the first half of the 2024/25 season on loan to Bundesliga side SC Freiburg, the 23-year-old German international notched an astounding 10 goals in her 12 total WSL matches.

Speaking of impressive scoring, Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema's stellar chip against Aston Villa in January earned the Dutch star the 2024/25 WSL Goal of the Season title.

No. 1 Seed Texas A&M Tops NCAA Softball Tournament Bracket

Texas A&M softball teammates greet KK Dement at the plate after a home run during the 2025 SEC tournament.
No. 1-seed Texas A&M leads a record 14 SEC teams in the 2025 NCAA softball tournament bracket. (David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

For the first time in program history, Texas A&M is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA softball tournament, with the Aggies staving off four-time reigning champion Oklahoma for the honor in Sunday's 2025 bracket drop.

After adverse weather canceled their conference title game on Saturday, the Aggies and No. 2-seed Sooners became 2025 SEC tournament co-champions, leaving the NCAA selection committee to lean heavily on each team's strength of schedule in making their top-seed decision.

"What set apart Texas A&M is they have 19 Top 25 wins, which is number one in the country," said NCAA softball committee chair Kurt McGuffin on Sunday's ESPN2 broadcast, noting the Aggies' tough nonconference schedule.

Taking on a lighter nonconference slate than usual due to massive roster turnover following the 2023/24 season, Oklahoma relied heavily on their record in a stacked SEC, finishing one half-game ahead of A&M in regular-season play.

While the Sooners look to extend their championship streak, the Aggies will be hunting their third national title and first since 1987.

Standing in their way in the 64-team bracket are a record number of familiar foes, as the SEC boasts 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA competition — the most from any single conference in tournament history.

Even more, nine of the bracket's 16 seeded teams hail from the SEC, and a full seven of the Top 8.

Florida State catcher Michaela Edenfield celebrates a home run while rounding second base during a 2023 Women's College World Series game.
Florida State returns to the NCAA tournament as the highest seeded non-SEC team. (SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Conference champs, at-large teams score NCAA bracket spots

SEC squads aren't the only teams looking to topple Texas A&M and Oklahoma, however, as conference champions and other elite squads learned their tournament fates on Selection Sunday.

No. 5 Florida State is the highest seeded non-SEC team, despite falling 2-1 to No. 11-seed Clemson in Saturday's ACC title game. Along with No. 14-seed Duke, the ACC will see nine teams in the 2025 tournament.

Behind 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady — the nation's top pitcher — Texas Tech leads a five-team contingent from the Big 12 after securing both their conference tournament trophy and the national No. 12-seed this weekend.

In the weekend's most upset-filled conference tournament, unseeded Michigan outlasted both No. 9-seed UCLA and No. 16-seed Oregon to score a second straight Big Ten tournament title on Saturday, becoming one of eight teams repping the conference in Sunday's bracket.

Notably, the Bruins — the winningest program in NCAA softball history with 12 titles — have not entered the tournament lower than a No. 6 seed since 2016.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball tournament

The road to the 2025 Women's College World Series begins with Regionals, in which each of the 16 seeded teams will host a four-team double-elimination mini-tournament this weekend.

With a minimum of 96 games — and a possibility of 112 — Regional play begins at 12 PM ET on Friday, with the 64-team field narrowing to 16 by Sunday night.

All games will air live across ESPN's networks.

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