Sorry if I'm a little late in getting my opinion of the Tebow/Focus on the Family Superbowl commercial out. I just heard again about the controversy on the news last night where it was reported the ad will be aired. It seems that reception from Superbowl watchers will range from ambivalent to irritated -- I'm not all that worried about the anti-choice movement making inroads with this hugely expensive ad. I am worried, however, about how the anti-choice activists continue to hide their true motives behind pro-choice language.
It is being reported that the ad's theme is "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" and that it will feature Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's mother talking about her pregnancy with the football star. Tebow's evangelical beliefs haven't been a secret. He was homeschooled, his parents were missionaries, and supposedly he puts bible verses in his eye black. Besides that, he's a hell of a college quarterback -- even the most dedicated Florida State fan will admit it (in private, if all in listening range are sworn to secrecy). He is the very picture of strength and health today.
But during Mrs. Tebow's pregnancy things weren't as sure (the story goes). Here is how one article explains the commercial:
...the ad tells the story of Bob and Pam Tebow, who was pregnant with their fifth child when the couple traveled to the Philippines on a missionary trip.
While there, Pam contracted amoebic dysentery and the medicines used for her recovery threatened her unborn fetus. Doctors advised her to abort the fetus. Pam ignored their advice and gave birth on Aug. 14, 1987, to a baby boy. That boy was Tim Tebow.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Because the child became a sports star is supposed to make the story even more gripping. If that child were this dud, there wouldn't be a commercial and we all know it. The Tebows, educated people both, were able to first see a doctor, get advice, weigh that advice, and make a choice knowing the risk they were headed into. That is the message I see in this commercial, one of choice (and, as an aside, one of universal health care). How does that fit into Focus on the Family's actual abortion stance?
Here is what their website says:
We desire to end the practice of abortion: making it both
illegal
and unthinkable.
Focus on the Family does not support what this ad portrays. If this ad were honest there would be no choice. There would be a doctor informing the Tebows that there are complications to the pregnancy and there is nothing that can be done. It would show Mrs. Tebow's life and welfare legally subordinate to her pregnancy. It would even, if it were fair and honest, show some women who chose like Mrs. Tebow did and ended up losing their lives. That's the world Focus on the Family wants -- not one where women get the best medical advice and make their own decisions, but one where the decision has already been made by the government.
So why does the anti-choice frame their side this way? It's because they know the anti-abortion side is unpopular. Polls consistently show that the American people support abortion that is safe and legal. Groups like Focus on the Family and the politicians they groom for office must present themselves as religious people who choose life because running on their true beliefs would never get them elected. They deliberately confuse people about what it means to be "pro-life".
The true, mainstream "pro-life" position in America is people who themselves would not choose abortion but also would not want to make that choice for someone else. That is still a choice, and that is exactly what Focus on the Family and their allies want to take away. Those of us that care about women's rights need to call out the purposeful lies that these anti-choice activists and politicians tell, and show what the world they actually want would look like. It wouldn't look like Mrs. Tebow's ad, that's for sure.