Michigan football coach says he’d raise the baby for a player dealing with an unexpected pregnancy.
Jim Harbaugh said he has informed athletes that if they become pregnant unexpectedly and are unable to care for
the child, he and his wife will “raise that baby.”
Jim Harbaugh, head football coach at the University of Michigan, has advised his players and staff to go through
with any unplanned pregnancies, and that if they are unable to care for the child, he and his wife “will take that
baby”.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month, Harbaugh, 58, spoke with ESPN on
what he has told to his players and staff about his position on abortion.
“I’ve told them the same thing I tell my children, boys and girls, as well as our athletes and staff. I advise them to go
through with their unplanned pregnancy,” Harbaugh added. “Let that unborn child be born, and if you don’t feel like
you can care for it because you don’t have the means or wherewithal, Sarah and I will take that baby.
“Any player on our team, any female staff member or any staff member or anybody in our family or our extended
family … that doesn’t feel like after they have a baby they can take care of it, we got a big house,” he said at a later
point in the conversation. “We’ll raise that baby.”
Harbaugh has seven kids from two marriages. He has four children with his second wife, Sarah, who recently spoke
at an anti-abortion gathering in Michigan.
“I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born,” Harbaugh stated during the event, according to Detroit
Catholic, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit’s news service. “I enjoy life. I believe in compassionate
treatment and respect for life and death. My faith and science are what inspire these convictions in me.”
When questioned about abortion during a press conference during the Big Ten’s media day on Tuesday, Harbaugh
said it was “the most horrendous thing I could possibly conceive.”
