American Morning
Tebow's anti-abortion ad uproar
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/05/tebow.gi.art.jpg caption="Quarterback Tim Tebow of the Florida Gators celebrates after defeating the Cincinnati Bearcats on January 1, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana."]
By Carol Costello and Ronni Berke
The most anticipated Super Bowl commercial this weekend won't be selling Doritos or Pepsi, electronics or automobiles. It will simply be, according to a spokesman for its sponsor, "celebrating life."
Even some abortion rights activists are conceding the Focus on the Family ad, featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his family, is a savvy piece of marketing from the advocacy group, a longtime abortion opponent.
Tebow is famous, not just for his Heisman Trophy, but because his mother, Pam, decided to defy a doctor's recommendation that she undergo an abortion after falling ill while pregnant with him.
Tim Tebow, a devout Christian, calls his mother "a very courageous woman, and wouldn't say no in a lot of circumstances. So that's the reason I'm here and I'm very thankful for that."
To those who criticize his decision to appear in the ad: "I do stand up for what I believe. And at least you can respect that."
Focus on the Family will not release the commercial – or even a transcript of it – before Sunday's game. However, the group says that the 30 second commercial is not "anti-anything," according to spokesman Gary Scheeberger. "It's an ad that's very pro-family and it's really about celebrating family and celebrating life."
Although the ad has inflamed some women's groups, it's a far different message than in years past, back when the politically powerful Reverend James Dobson was its leader.
On his radio program in 2008, Dobson said, "It just grieves me greatly how the blood of maybe 46-48 million babies who have been aborted cries out to God from the ground."
For Kate Michelman, former president of the abortion rights group NARAL, Focus on the Family's strategy has been effective.
"Focus on the Family wants to make all abortions illegal under all circumstances, at any time during pregnancy – but they've learned that saying that is not acceptable to the American public," she says. "They have learned their lesson that they have to appeal to that more mainstream group of Americans and they have a warm and fuzzy ad."
She said abortion rights supporters should take note. “I think we could make broader points. I think in reaching a greater number of Americans, by saying good for her, Pam Tebow. That's exactly what were fighting for – for everyone woman to make the decision for herself.”
Stay tuned.
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This is still America, we are still a free people and I thank God for that. The Tebow commercial is about CHOICE, I saw it and loved it!! Thank you Pam and Tim for sharing such a great story. It seems there is only an issue if the choice made is NOT to abort.
Marti...I concur, very well put!!!
Mary, thank you for your comment and please ignore J Green, his last comment " I don't attend church to hear about sports" says so much more than he intended...if he attends at all he has not been listening....his attempt at intellect with comments about DNA and the lion kingdom are just sad...
To "crabby appleton" please try to get some peace and joy in your life...it's possible I promise.
Howie...please "forced on this planet" both parties had a choice so please go back to your first and only correct statement..choice is choice..also this commercial which you evidenlty did not see prior to posting such ravings..never once makes a religious comment ...which by the way is also about choice..one of God's greatest gifts to us in creation is our free will...choice is choice
Frank...did you even know what topic you were commenting about?
What happened to the message? I did not see it aired on the Super Bowl. What a marvelous brave mother to put herself at risk for her child, and he becomes a productive citizen and star sports figure. The time has arrived for mothers who's choice is to save the life of their child to be heard instead of being silienced by those whose choice is to destroy their child's life. I hope I just missed the message and that it was not pulled.
What is clear about this comercial is that Ms. Tebow was given the right to make her own choice. For some reason anti-abortion groups feel they are entitled to have a choice but anyone that disagrees with them do not. Can they not see how condescending that is? I do not shove my opoinons down the throats of others, because it is simply not my place to tell others how they should live their own life!
Tim Tebow's tale tells us a bit about his mother but almost nothing about the abortion issue. Nevertheless, lets not get our knickers in a knot about the ad at least until we've seen it.
Unfortunately, however, the pro-choice movement will find it hard to find an effective and attractive spokesperson from among those who ignored their doctor's advice and are now deceased or badly damaged as a result; And it would be unseemly and wrong for them to exploit them in a Superbowl Ad if they did.
It would also be wrong for the ad to deny by implication the possibility of ignoring medical advice and successfully producing a prize quarterback . Lets hope Focus on the Family doesn't generalize too much the other way in its exploitation of the Tebow story either.
Let us remember, One swallow does not a Summer make!
Dear NORML Supporters,
With great regret and chagrin to report, CBS has rejected a contract deal
with NORML to place a pro-cannabis law reform advertisement on the biggest
electronic billboard in Times Square (The CBS 'Super Screen' at 42nd St)
claiming that the advertisement is too political. NORML had a contract for
the 15 second spot below on the giant billboard (and a second one
featuring President Obama and New York City's high cannabis arrest rate
with its shocking racial disparity in enforcement).
CBS did this to NORML while allowing a very controversial anti-abortion ad
to appear on Sunday during their Super Bowl TV broadcast!
See the entire controversy and the canceled billboard ads at:
blog.norml.org/2010/02/05/times-square-billboard-from-norml-denied-by-cbs/
Thanks for all your support and help,
-Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML
Washington, DC
We admire Tim Tebow in my family. Here is a 22 year old kid who walks the walk and talks the talk. I believe women should have the ability to make a choice regarding continuing or terminating a pregnancy. Pam Tebow made a choice - for her it was to give birth - but she still had the ability to make a choice. That choice is a fundamental right to women of our country. People seem to be making a big deal of the fact that Pam Tebow was in the Philipines – where abortions were prohibited – during her pregnancy. Ever heard of air travel??
choice means choice, if the pro lifers have their way there will be no choice... interesting how pro lifers care so much about the unborn then forget about the resulting life they just forced upon this planet... hippocrates...
I applaud the Tim Tibo Super Bowl ad. A positive ad without violence and sex will be heartwarming.
Celebrating family is a great way to show why women should give life a chance. I support Tebow's positive ad!
It seems that too many people think they have the authority to tell other women what to do with their body, as if their beliefs are absolutely "correct" and everyone else is just too ignorant or "sinful" to make the decision for themselves. I, myself, would not get an abortion due to my own personal beliefs. However, I am not ignorant to the consequences of abortion rights being taken away. There are too many unwanted children floating through the system as it is. Not to mention, if someone wants an abortion badly enough, they will find a way; illegally, or try something dangerous themselves. The consequences here can be fatal. Safety is important. If you don't believe in abortion, don't get one; you reserve that right. But, who are you to decide this for other women? Let them make their own decisions which they feel right for them. Stop pressing your religious beliefs onto the women of America. This country is based on freedom of religion and freedom of choice. Let it go.
Pro-Choice
Michigan
Mary doesn't know what she is talking about. In nature, parents often kill their young, or abandon their young. Nature doesn't tolerate deformities and birth defects. In the lion kingdom, a new male taking over a pride would kill any recently born cubs. This would make the female go back into estrus sooner and then he can pass on his DNA. Nature is a very cruel task-master.
People, like Mary, who profess to being pro-life are usually only pro-birth. After they are born, to hell with them!!
How many pro-lifers profess to being part of the culture of life, while being pro-death penalty? How many of them belong to the NRA and would shoot anything that moves? How many of them have no respect for the sanctity of life for other species? If you look at the states that execute the most people, most of them are part of the Bible Belt.
As far as Tim Tebow is concerned, "JUST SHUT UP AND PASS THE BALL!!l." No pro-team is going to pay you for spouting your religious views, but only on touchdown passes and getting your teams more wins than losses.
I don't attend church to hear about sports and I don't want my quarterbacks telling me anything more than how they are going to get the team to win.
For far too long the pro-choice movement has not supported a woman's right to CHOOSE to carry her fetus and give birth to her child. Why such uproar over a child whose mother made that CHOICE and gave him life, celebrating his life and his mom?
Pro-choice has just been a clever tactic in the pro-abortion movement; which has shown no respect for a woman's right to CHOOSE unless she chooses abortion.
What is the harm in this man doing this commercial? Maybe someone will think a little more about the choices he or she makes because of this commercial. Most of us gain from other's stories of life experience and overcoming adversity. People will still have a choice after the Superbowl. But maybe a few will make a different one.
Pro-abortion groups says this ad sends a dangerous message "to have a baby at any cost". Ask ANY mother regardless of race, income or age if they regret having their baby after the fact. The polls would be strongly against that statement. Free speech is free speech, not just for those who are trying to make money by killing babies. Women should wake up and stop letting others kill off their offspring. Stop letting others tell you that your child isn't worth it! Even the crudest beasts in the animal kingdom do not do this. They tempt you by saying it will ruin your life, cause you mental distress and depression, deplete your savings, and take your freedom away. A child is a smile when you need it, a playful distraction from the stresses of life, the motivation needed to actually have a savings, and when you feel no one else loves you, your child will give it unconditionally. It's a guarantee of future happiness with many loved ones caring for you and surrounding you in your elder years. I have never met an elderly person, of whom have one or no children and they unanimously state that their biggest regret is not having more children. Their decisions to limit their children were based on selfish reasons. Money and power can only give you temporary happiness, where children, grand children and great grandchildren give you happiness through your entire lifetime. I feel sorry for those selfish people who after giving up their precious fertile years, have 40-50 years of regret, depression and complete and utter loneliness. It surely is the curse for your selfishness.
In Africa Mentally Ill people are looked at a special becuase the can do something they can't. Hear voices! That what I see in the Bible a bunch of paranoid people that everything mean something the rain, earthquakes, what have you and starting wars over everything. 90% of mentally ill people are non-violant some are the homeless people that live in the street people and Police can't help them because they are not breaking the law.
I don't think the Super Bowl is the time or the place for this discussion to happen. It is just another case of the anti-abortion fanatics trying to shove their opinion down our throats. I am personally Pro-Life. When I was 20 years old I became pregnant. I chose to have my son and very shortly after married his father and we later had 3 more children. It was my choice! My story is a happy ending that doesn't always happen. In the years before and after my pregnancy, I have friends who made another choice. I don't judge them because they made the choice that was the best for their situation. Just because you hold an opinion doesn't give you the right to force it on others. We live in a country which prides itself on the freedom of it's citizens. Roe vs. Wade was passed for a reason...you can NOT tell a woman what to do with her body.....You are entitled to your own view but that doesn't necessary mean it's the right one..........
religion is creeping further into forums and politics where it has no business being. its creeper into our schools with the teaching of creationism as science at all tax payers expense, and now they are pushing their "believe like us or your going to hell" agenda into sports!! religion is a personal issue and has no place in our government or on the TV as a "public service announcement". Americans know where to find religion if its what they seek and do not deserve to be blindsides by it on public airways while watching a sporting event... fundamental religion is the fuel that fires of attacks like 9/11 and the killing of Dr's that these zealous disagree with.. and we are allowing it to get a foothold here now... people like there need to keep their religion to themselves at home or in church and stop pushing it on everybody else.
Why are abortion advocates so afraid of a pro-life ad? It's time for the tired decades old war over Roe v. Wade to end. It's not really about what's legal, it's about whether humans will have a culture that respects life. It's not about women not being able to choose..... it's about women choosing to take responsibility to not conceive. There should be a whole lot FEWER abortions. It's not healthy for women to use abortion as after the fact birth control. Should it be illegal: NO. Should it be recognized as an UNDESIRABLE outcome, YES. Carelessy destroying life after it's created is not a healthy thing. Cultures which don't respect life in utero soon don't respect it at any stage. It's interesting to note how freedom of speech comes under attack when it's anti-abortion. How dare anyone suggest that this ad should not be 'allowed'??!!!
I think the comment "for every woman to make the decision for herself.” is misstated. Pam Tebow made the decision that provided L I F E for her baby.
Its great that Tim Tebow's mother had a CHOICE to either abort the baby or not. That is what America is supposed to be about, the right to chose for yourself. It makes no difference what the baby grew up to be a football player, a garbage man, a doctor or president of the United States. What matters is that she had a choice. Nobody if forced to have an abortion and nobody should be forced to have a baby.
Hooray for Life! The U.S. is close to zero population growth thanks to NARAL.
I support any ad that brings attention to the atrocity of abortion. Abortion should be viewed in the same light as other domestic violence issues. It is violence against the child and violence against the body and psyche of the woman.
Football should stay out of politics and remember the mega dollars we women might choose to spend elsewhere
If having an abortion wasn't law then the ad would be reversed. There'd be an ad with numerous family say there should be abortions. We shouldn't be tell other how to live when have numerous logs in our eyes. How can the Bible be life's guide when the author in the fifth books record's his own death. No dancing your not the author you can't say what he ment. If there is life after death then it automatic without conditions unless God talk to each individual and don't show favortism.
"Tebow is famous, not just for his Heisman Trophy, but because his mother, Pam, decided to defy a doctor's recommendation that she undergo an abortion after falling ill while pregnant with him."
Well It isn't like he grew up to affect too many of us in our daily lives.
He hasn't discovered a new life saving vaccine or made any important political impact. So far he's just an entertainer and there are many entertainers as far as I'm concerned that should have been aborted.
If the Tebow Super Bowl ad says that every woman who decides to see a difficult pregnancy to full-term is going to end up giving birth to a future NFL star quarterback, it will be quite disingenuous. I don't see the pro-life people stepping up with any alternatives for the women whom they want to forego abortions. If they have their way, millions of unwanted children would be dumped into society and I would love to see Mr. Tebow and those that agree with him to volunteer to raise them all. Not a chance in H*ll that would ever happen, though, they never did it before Roe v. Wade did they?
I believe in womens right to choose, but I believe women should also be smart enough to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies.. I graduated High School about 5 years ago, I have never been pregnant, but I personally know of 5 girls I went to school with who have had abortions because they were careless in their sex life. Some have had multiple abortions. And I think that is wrong. I believe Tim Tebow is not only an amazing football player, but a great person and I apprieciate what his mother and him are doing. Maybe it will make girls think about how they want to live their life.. And maybe they will realize that that fetus is part of them and that THEY made that child, that they want to kill....... ehhhh. Thanks Tebow and Pam!!
Why is a college football player's opinion relevant to the abortion debate? Many other people in our country have opinions on this (including me), but we are not media-worthy. What is his expertise on the issue? Why is his opinion news?
Wasn't she in the Philipines at the time? Where abortion was clearly outlawed at the time? So it's, like the rest of of the radical right, still another myth.
Tim Tebow is a first class loser, and CBS has violated every news principle it ever had by airing this trash...may both corporate hacks pay dearly for it
Bravo for Ms. Tebow. She exercised her CHOICE. Focus on the Family would do well to focus on providing other options to women who feel they need to choose abortion. Maybe lobbying for women's rights, childcare options, more help for single mothers, easing restrictions on adoption by gay couples...
Once again you reveal your BIAS by framing the Tebow super bowl ad as ANTI-ABORTION, which it clearly is not, rather than PRO-LIFE which it obviously is. It's too bad that you can't help but show your personal bent rather than reporting OBJECTIVELY!
I love Tim Tebow the player, not Tim Tebow the social advocate or politician. The Super Bowl is not the place for him to air his political views. Keep the game about the game without interjecting politics, religion, or social agendas.
it's interesting you call this piece "anti-abortion" while stating that it does not mention "abortion." Why not "pro-life" or if that is too polarizing in the other direction how about "celebrate life"? i am a believer in the sanctity of life. therefore, i am against abortion for any reason, against the death penalty, and against euthanasia. some may not understand this position being held by a fighter pilot who fought in vietnam and killed the enemy, but i have no problem with it
What? We no longer have free speech? The pro-abortionist should listen to themselves and instead use the efforts for adoption rather than the continued assault to our freedom of speech. Thank God the leftist Mahdi Islamist aren't in charge!
If one allows an advertisement during the Super Bowl to change a personal opinion and value such as the right to choose, then that is a scary example of advertising in the U.S. being too powerful. If a Super Bowl ad makes one evaluate their ethics on this level instead of what type of potato chips, then where do Americans find a place to escape their everyday lives through sport?
Tim Tebow's message of life and family is an important one which America desperately needs. I look forward to seeing it on Sunday.
Catherine
Newmarket, Ontario
Tim and his mom Pam are incredible people. Awesome courage and faith. A huge inspiration to countless Americans. Can't wait to view the commercial.
Here we go... This ad is opening a door that will not close. There should be a place to go, in this case a TV show experienced by millions of Americans, and not have to be subjected to politics and volatile issues. Imagine 10 years from now when every other commercial pushes a point of view. I won't be watching
As an add on to that,abortion has been illegal since the 1930s there.
Tebow's ad can't be knocked for his willingness to stand up for his beliefs,however it's based on his mother being pregnant with him and falling ill in the Philippines,then being urged by the doctors to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life.The factual problem with this is that abortion of any kind is illegal for any reason in the Philippines so it's very unlikely that the doctors themselves would have suggested it.
Personally I am against abortions but will protect their individual right to abort. Change the circumstances of their lives so that life is seen as good they look forward to bringing forth life and will not abort as they do now because of the circumstances surrounding their lives. Cause and affect is it not.
Do you think just one life was lost during that abortion? That life would have grown, married and have kids who now will never be born to the world because their parent was aborted. Billions will never see the light of day because of the millions aborted thus far.
Will all the crap we get bombarded with on television daily a 30 second ad that has a mom telling the world she risked her life to bring her child into the world is somehow vilified is beyond me. Whether you are anti abortion or pro choice it is a woman speaking about her body and what she chose to so with it and isn't that at the core of both groups beliefs? This is controversy for the sake of controversy for the sake of publicity. And I would rather watch a hundred of these that are at least real and from the heart than 1 comercial about some man who has to have some pill to have sex...or some couple going on about how one has herpes and one doesn't...those offensive to me.