A nice little boy-meets-girl, girl-accuses-boy-of-rape, boy-pays-for-abortion, girl-attempts-to-extort-boy story to start our day here at UPH….

The woman, Karen Cunagin Sypher, seems to have slept with Louisville coach Rick Pitino, and he now admits that they did, in fact, have consensual sex.  (She accused him of rape, but the police determined her claims had no merit.)  They did it at a restaurant in 2003 where Pitino says he was drinking.  Two weeks later, she called him, claiming to pregnant.  The married Pitino gave her $3,000 for an abortion (that must be what you pay for the deluxe package).

Six months later, Cunagin was married, saw Pitino at various events, and there was nothing weird behavior-wise between them, until she filed a criminal complaint that included a list of demands including college tuition for her children and a sum of $10 million.

Deadspin has picked up on an interesting angle: everyone’s thinking about the abortion side of this.  Pitino–this is important–is Catholic and has five children, and Sypher has four.

This isn’t one of those things that wouldn’t be a story if it hadn’t happened to an athlete, so we’ll save that rant.  But amid the sordid details is an interesting commentary on choice in America.  Pitino has said he was conflicted, telling Sypher he “didn’t know what to do” about her pregnancy.

So he let her make the choice.  Regardless of his personal feelings, he allowed her to do what she felt best.  Now, this woman may not be the best judge of such things in the world, but Pitino did a responsible–and a brave–thing by allowing her the freedom to choose.

Whether or not we personally, or you, dear reader, would get an abortion in a similar situation or in any other, the story here is the choice.  Sypher chose to have an abortion, but perhaps she also chose to keep her family and Pitino’s intact.  He gave her the option of doing something that might well have ruined his family life forever–not that this scandal might not, but we’re pretty sure a 6th half-sibling wouldn’t have gone over–and then…

he let her choose.