Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens earlier this year, was invited to the White House Wednesday to celebrate the victory with his teammates and President Barack Obama.
Birk decided not to go.
The St. Paul native and former Viking, who is now retired from the NFL, outlined his reasons why on KFAN-FM 100.3 Thursday morning.
“About five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood’,” Birk said. “Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year. I am Catholic, I am active in the Pro-Life movement and I just felt like I couldn’t deal with that. I couldn’t endorse that in any way.”
So Birk, who maintains he respects the “office of the presidency,” stayed home.
“I wasn’t there,” he said.
According to NBCSports.com, however, Birk misquoted Obama. The president didn’t say “God bless Planned Parenthood.” Instead, Obama ended the speech by saying, “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you. God bless America.”
To hear Birk’s comments in their entirety, CLICK HERE.
