Everybody loves Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Photo: twitter.com/bengals

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and all-around nice guy Joe Burrow has shared another opinion about current events – or, at least, we think so.

Burrow’s Instagram account is full of all kinds of football stuff – publicity shots, on-field antics, locker room peeks. But on June 27, Burrow shared something a little different that points to the Super Bowl runner-up as being pro-abortion. In an Instagram story – the method that’s separate from the photo feed and typically disappears after 24 hours – Burrow reposted static slides from podcaster and account executive Jenna Caine Parris.

The slides feature text that has been circulating for at least a few years about supporting different types of abortion and the people who have them. The text also puts the focus on the person who could be forced to carry pregnancies to term no matter the danger.

“I’m not pro-murdering babies,” the text begins. “I’m pro-Becky who found out at her 20-week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life-sustaining organs.”

“I’m pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later,” the post continues.

The text highlights nine more scenarios in which people get different types of abortions and ends with “You can argue and say I’m pro-choice all you want, but the truth is: I’m pro-life. Their lives. Women’s lives.” Parris originally shared the post on Sept. 3, 2021 and gave credit to @memiorsofamoddler.

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Burrow’s re-share of Parris’ post did not include any additional commentary from him, so there’s no direct confirmation about his feelings on abortion and bodily autonomy. But considering that he shared a post that abortion advocates have heavily circulated – and so soon after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a person’s right to the privacy to seek an abortion – the signs point to Burrow being in favor of letting people make their own medical decisions instead of being forced to give birth.

Burrow’s Instagram story comes shortly after he’d advocated during an interview for better gun laws and just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade on June 24. Legal experts as well as civil and human rights activists have long said that reversing Roe could set the stage for reversing other rights, such as the right to interracial marriage, to same-sex marriage, to perform sexual acts between consenting adults and to access and use contraceptives.

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After the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, Ohio enacted a bill that blocks abortion within the state in nearly all cases after six weeks gestation, or fewer than two weeks after a missed period and before many people realize they may be pregnant. The Republican-developed law contains no exceptions for rape or incest, and abortion providers conducting the procedure or providing abortion pills after six weeks could get slapped with a fifth-degree felony. Additional bills to further restrict or completely outlaw abortion within Ohio are being considered.

During a June 27 press conference in front of Cincinnati City Hall, Mayor Aftab Pureval announced that interim city manager John Curp is advancing a change in the city’s health plan and human resource policies that would protect employees seeking abortion services and other healthcare and would reimburse employees for out-of-state travel costs related to those procedures. Pureval also said he has asked city administration to provide a report within 30 days with ways Cincinnati can decriminalize abortions as Ohio and other states further restrict the procedure. He said that he has instructed the Cincinnati Police Department not to pursue residents who seek abortions or health providers like doctors and nurses who perform abortion-related care.

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Cincinnati City Council is expected to vote on the legislation during its June 29 meeting, Pureval said. If it passes, Curp will amend Cincinnati’s healthcare coverage to include abortion services.

Editor’s note: Some of the people quoted in this feature frame their abortion language around “women,” meaning a sex assigned at birth. But transgender men, intersex individuals, non-binary individuals and agender individuals also receive abortion care. CityBeat will continue to explore abortion issues that affect all individuals in future stories.

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This article appears in Jun 15-28, 2022.

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