In addition to his football career as the tight end for the Baltimore Ravens, Benjamin Watson is also a husband, a brother, a father of five, and an outspoken Christian who is against abortion.
During a recent interview with Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center, the NFL star shared how he defines "pro-life" as encompassing all aspects of life.
"Pro-life is: being for people who are in sex-trafficking, or people who are in danger from persecution, or being for people who are stricken with poverty or illnesses, or whatever it may be," he told the organization.
"To me being pro-life means that you hold all life very dear and you understand that all life was created by God and that because of that, life has internal, intrinsic value, whether it's capable of living on its own at that point or whether it is capable of living on its own at the end of its life," the athlete continued. "All the way through the spectrum, I believe life has value because it's created in the image of God."
Watson's fifth child, a girl named Eden, was born last August. The athlete, who recently penned the book, "Under Our Skin," said that while fatherhood can be intimidating, as a Christian, he has a perfect Father to model himself after
"I fall short all the time, but my job as a father is to be the best example of our heavenly Father as I earthly can," he said. "I am not going to be perfect, but I need to be honest with them that daddy needs forgiveness just as much as they do, because I need the blood of Jesus just as much as they do. However, we do need to be the provider, be a priest, a protector for them, so that they get a little glimpse of the sacrificial love of the heavenly Father."
When asked what counsel he would give to a young man who just found out his girlfriend is pregnant, and doesn't know how to feel or what to do about it, Watson shared how he dealt with such a situation in the past with a previous teammate.
"My whole speech to him was encouraging him about what an awesome opportunity it is to raise a child, to give the child a home, to love that child, and that God entrusted him with another life, and what a responsibility and the privilege that is," he said. 'And then being real and saying, 'Look, it's not going to be easy. There are going to be some sacrifices that are going to come.'"
He added: "If they come over to my locker, I'm gonna tell them they can't go home and play video games, they need to go be there for their child, and for the baby's mother. I tell them they're never going to be a perfect dad because no one is. But we have a perfect Father to model ourselves after."
Watson also frequently makes such thoughtful points on abortion and other social issues across his social media accounts.
After videos released by the Center for Medical Progress showed top Planned Parenthood employees discussing their fetal parts business, Watson took to his Facebook to share his thoughts: "As horrific as it is, the issue isn't really the sale of human parts," he wrote. "It's the legal practice that allows this to even be a possibility. Killing children and simply discarding the leftovers is not any more acceptable than profiting off of them."
