So the much hyped Tim Tebow pro-life ad aired during the Superbowl, despite much protest by pro-choice groups, myself included. And to our surprise, there wasn't even a mention of pro-life or abortion. Pam Tebow simply said: "I call him my miracle baby. He almost didn't make it into this world. I can remember so many times when I almost lost him. It was so hard. Well, he's all grown up now, and I still worry about his health! With all our family's been through, we have to be tough!" Tim Tebow then tackles his mom, and they share a loving, mother-son moment, after which the Focus on the Family logo appears.
Some say we pro-choicers have no right to be angry, since the words "pro-life" or "abortion" were never used. Without knowing the context, you'd never even know Pam Tebow considered abortion. The commercial seems as though she's just talking about her son, and proper ways to raise a family, especially focusing on health. One watches it and thinks, "What is this commerical selling? Hmm, family values... ways to raise a healthy family... go to Focus on the Family, ok great! " Only, not great. FoF is an ultra conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay rights group. They should really be called Focus on the Straight, White, Non-Birth Control Using, Upper Middle Class Family. Yes, the Tebow's have freedom of speech, but the Superbowl is not the place for them to sell such propaganda.
But if you know the story of the Tebows, which most people do by now, then the Tebow ad definitely has an undertone of pro-life. Even some against abortion say that the only exceptions should be for cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. Here's Pam Tebow in the latter situation, and she still chose to carry the baby to term and it turned out great for her and her family. It's like FoF is using her to say "I told you so" to the medical community. It's like they're saying doctors don't know what they're talking about, and any doctor who tells you to have an abortion is wrong. Again, the Superbowl is NOT the place to promote such propaganda. I would even say this if a pro-gay rights group wanted to air a commercial advocating people to visit a site that promoted changing marriage legislation. Not the place.
Heck, CBS rejected the ad from Mancrunch.com, a gay dating website. This ad had no agenda other than promoting their site, which is simply a dating site like match.com or eharmony.com. It's not a site to promote gay rights, it's not a site to protest Propostion 8 (the same-sex marriage ban in California), nor is it a site that in any way affiliates with a political party. You do not need gay rights in order to have a gay dating website. FoF is quite the opposite. They are a non-profit organization, do not pay taxes, and have a very clear conservative agenda they are trying to promote. While some of their topics are things like how to breast feed or potty train your child, others include trying to change abortion and gay-rights legislation. I repeat, the Superbowl's not the place to voice these agendas.
Some say that we pro-choicers are only happy if the choices women make are ones we agree with, namely, to have an abortion. They say that we're angry with Pam Tebow's choice, that we wish TIm had never been born. While I think these ridiculous statements speak for themselves, let me clarify. Pro-choice means just that, we advocate giving women the ability to choose how to control their reproductive health instead of being forced into a certain path. We praise Pam Tebow for having the courage to choose to carry Tim to term even though the odds were against her. The peace of mind she had knowing that she made her choice on her own free will probably helped her mentally and physically to give birth to a healthy baby. Pro-choice does not equal pro-abortion.
I don't know why anti-choicers think that we want everyone to have abortions. Obviously if every pregnant woman aborted her baby, our species would die. Many pro-choice women have families, as I intend on having children of my own some day, when I'm ready. We love life; we celebrate life! But we also celebrate choice and female autonomy, giving women the ability to make their own decisions and take control of their own lives. Nobody wishes Tim Tebow dead (well, maybe someone, somewhere, but definitely not pro-choicers as a whole).
As I've said many times before and will continue to say, if we really want to end the abortion debate, we need to focus on preventing unintended pregnancies to begin with. We need to advocate birth control and proper sex education and teach the public how to properly plan for their families. With or without Tim and Pam Tebow, there will still be plenty of people advocating against freedom of choice.
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