{"id":217793,"date":"2020-02-02T17:31:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T23:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=217793"},"modified":"2020-02-01T22:44:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T04:44:30","slug":"nfl-star-adoption-act-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/nfl-star-adoption-act-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL star on adoption: ‘The greatest act of love I’ve ever witnessed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(The Daily Signal<\/a>) A former NFL star who shunned an invitation to the White House in 2013 to protest President Barack Obama\u2019s embrace of Planned Parenthood says he\u2019s pro-life in part because of the mothers of his two adopted children.<\/p>\n

In remarks to the National Pro-Life Summit<\/a> in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, Matt Birk, who played that year for the Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens, urged his audience of mostly high school and college-aged pro-life activists to combat the celebration of abortion and to rejoice in life.<\/p>\n

Birk, the father of eight, made headlines in June 2013 after the Ravens\u2019 victory in his 14th and final season in the NFL<\/a>. Because of his pro-life beliefs, he declined to take part in the team\u2019s invitation to the White House, saying Obama had said \u201cGod bless Planned Parenthood\u201d about six weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

READ: Inspired by real life, Kristin Chenoweth tells powerful pro-life adoption story in new movie<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to a CBS Sports report<\/a> at the time, Obama had concluded a speech<\/a> to the organization\u2019s national conference in April 2013 with \u201cThank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you. God bless America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t ready for what happened next,\u201d Birk told his audience of more than 3,000 at the Marriott Marquis hotel. \u201cAll of a sudden, I got introduced to the 24-hour news cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birk explained why he held pro-life convictions strongly enough to say no to an invitation from the president, noting that his Catholic faith and his own family played into those beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pro-life because God is the originator of all life, and my life has dignity, not because my mother said so, but because I am a child of God,\u201d said Birk, who played 10 seasons for the Minnesota Vikings and four with the Ravens and was a six-time Pro Bowl selection.<\/p>\n

Birk, 43, said his family owes its existence in part to two women who chose life.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of my eight children are adopted, and I cannot tell you the gratitude that I have to their birth mothers,\u201d he said. \u201cThey committed the greatest act of love I have ever witnessed in my life \u2014 to give a child up for adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that fact informs his belief that abortion is wrong.<\/p>\n

READ: Family shares life-changing adoption story, proving \u2018families don\u2019t have to match\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never see a woman walking out of an abortion clinic with a smile on her face, because there\u2019s nothing to celebrate,\u201d Birk said. \u201cYou\u2019ll never hear someone say, \u2018Here\u2019s my daughter. She\u2019s two years old, and I wish I had aborted her. This means only one thing \u2014 that abortion must be evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birk said that while he was always pro-life intellectually, he started \u201cdoing pro-life\u201d after he got a call from the Catholic archbishop of Baltimore in 2012, asking him to speak at the Maryland March for Life, where his eyes were opened to the harsh reality of abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so shocked by the hundreds of women who had an abortion who regret it, and are still hurting from it. And they don\u2019t want other women to make the same mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Birk concluded by urging the audience to pray and to show up for pro-life events, but not to be discouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not our job to win this fight, but it is our job to try,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are a movement rooted in truth. We don\u2019t have to defend the truth, because the truth is like a lion that you just have to let out of its cage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was published by\u00a0The Daily Signal<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(The Daily Signal) A former NFL star who shunned an invitation to the White House in 2013 to protest President Barack Obama\u2019s embrace of Planned Parenthood says he\u2019s pro-life in part because of the mothers of his two adopted children. In remarks to the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, Matt Birk, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":713,"featured_media":217794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,9455],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFormer NFL star on adoption: 'The greatest act of love I've ever witnessed'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Adoption gave former NFL star Matt Birk two of his children, and he's speaking out about the gratitude and admiration he feels towards their birth mothers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/nfl-star-adoption-act-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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