Jim Harbaugh: ‘I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born’

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has told his players and staff that he and his wife would raise their baby that is a result of an unplanned pregnancy.

Harbaugh, 58, told ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski in an interview that he thinks “the abortion issue is one that’s so big that it needs to be talked about.” That’s when he said that he tells his players and coaches that he would want them to give up their child to him and his wife rather than elect to have an abortion. 

“I’ve told [them] the same thing I tell my kids, boys, the girls, same thing I tell our players, our staff members. I encourage them if they have a pregnancy that wasn’t planned, to go through with it, go through with it. Let that unborn child be born, and if at that time, you don’t feel like you can care for it, you don’t have the means or the wherewithal, then 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. We’ll raise that baby.”

Harbaugh, a Catholic, and his wife, Sarah, spoke at the pro-life “Plymouth Right to Life” event last week. 

“I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born,” Harbaugh said at the event. “I love life. I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death. My faith and my science are what drive these beliefs in me. Quoting from Jeremiah: ’Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”

Harbaugh’s stance comes a month after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June and end the constitutional right to an abortion. 

It isn’t the first time that Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback and coach, has gone public with his views about hot-button issues.

He’s been supportive of Colin Kaepernick’s actions and social justice initiatives. He most recently had Kaepernick, his former quarterback when he coached the 49ers, as an honorary captain at Michigan’s spring game.