Simone Biles reveals she is 'very much pro-choice': 'Your body, your choice'

Olympic star Simone Biles recently clarified her stance on abortion during an "unpopular opinions" Q&A with her Instagram followers. Responding to one submission that said "abortion is wrong", the 24-year-old shared that she is "very much pro-choice." She also addressed the "why not put it up for adoption?" argument anti-choice activists often use by tapping into her own experiences as a former foster child. "I already know this is going to start the biggest argument & may even lose followers BUT I'm very much pro-choice," Biles wrote on Instagram. "Your body. your choice."

"Also for everyone gonna say 'just put it up for adoption,' it's not that easy & coming from someone who was in the foster care system TRUST me foster care system is broken & it's TOUGH especially on the kids & young adults who age out & adoption is expensive... I'm just saying," she added. As Biles — who won silver and bronze medals at the recent Tokyo Games — mentions in her response, there is a lot to consider financially when it comes to adoption. According to a 2016 fact sheet called "Planning for Adoption: Knowing the Costs and Resources" from the Children's Bureau, the price of private adoption usually ranges from $20,000 to $45,000.

This cost includes legal fees ($1,500-$4,000), court documentation fees ($500-$2000), home studies ($1,500-$4,000), counseling and medical expenses for birth parents, training for adoptive parents, and interim childcare. Meanwhile, the cost is often more for international adoptions. Such financial commitments are bound to be a hurdle for those considering adoption and might even put them off from going ahead with it. Despite all this, Biles still faced unnecessary backlash after one user claimed in a since-deleted post that the athlete was suggesting that people should choose termination over foster care or adoption.

Responding to the comment, Biles wrote: "DO NOT misconstrue my words. That is not at all what I implied. I did NOT say I support to abort rather than to put them through the foster care system. What I did imply is that you should not control someone else's body/decision. Let's be real what you care about is control... I have forever & will continue to support foster kids. AS I WAS ONE. I've been an advocate for foster kids and the system but you wouldn't know that because you don't follow me, you just like to open your mouth."

"I'm done because you'll twist my words however it feels fitting to spew hate," she added. "Also if anyone is seeing this just know I support you doing whatever feels fitting for YOU." Biles recently opened up about the challenges she faced during childhood as part of her Facebook Watch series, Simone vs. Herself. "I don't remember a lot about foster care, but I definitely knew that we had been taken from our biological mom and then you just think you're going to go back to her," she said. "We were very fortunate that we actually got to stay with our siblings because a lot of the time you either get regrouped from home to home to home or you and your siblings get split up."

Biles also revealed that there were times when she and her siblings endured bouts of hunger while under the care of their biological mom. "Growing up, me and my siblings were so focused on food because we didn't have a lot of food," she said. "I remember there was this cat around the house and I'd be so hungry. They would feed this cat and I'm like, 'Where the heck is my food?' And so I think that's where it stemmed where I don't like cats is because this frickin' street cat, she always fed it, but she never fed us."