University of Michigan football coach says he’ll raise players’ unplanned babies

Jim Harbaugh said he has ‘a big house’ to raise babies if players choose to ‘let the unborn be born’

University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has sparked criticism after saying he will raise players’ unplanned babies.

Mr Harbaugh, 58, pleaded with players and staff at the Ann Arbor university to “let the unborn be born”.

“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,’’ he told ESPN.

‘‘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 ... We got a big house, we’ll raise that baby.”

Mr Harbaugh had previously made his stance clear at an anti-abortion rally on Sunday, where his wife also attended.

“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,’’ Mr Harbaugh said at the rally in Plymouth, Mich.

Mr Harbaugh’s remarks come on the heels of University of Michigan interim president Mary Sue Coleman’s condemnation of the Roe v Wade overturning by the Supreme Court, The New York Times reported.

His comments were met with disapproval on social media, with users branding them as unrealistic and privileged.

‘‘There are thousands of kids in foster care. Adopt one of those,’’ Twitter user @mandymais hit back.

Another user wrote: “Why just players or staff members? They are taking rights from 100s of millions of people. His house isn’t that big.”

“It’s this kind of short sighted small minded solution by rich white male narcissists that has gotten us where we are. Why hasn’t he adopted the 1000’s of kids already in foster care?”

Mr Harbaugh is among a growing group of conservative figures who have been ridiculed after suggesting they will adopt the children of people seeking abortions.