Much of the response to the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow has been focused on CBS's hypocrisy and the uneven way they apply their advertising standards. I think it's great that people are pointing this out. But I would not fight the airing of the ad. I would simply say, "It's great that Pam Tebow had a choice."* Then, I'd fight to get pro-choice views aired, because what is missing from the response is an actual argument for choice.
There are many reasons why people are pro-choice. There are some who do not believe that life begins at conception. There are some women who would not have an abortion but believe that each woman has the right to make the choice for themselves. There are some women who are personally against abortion but would rather abortion be legal so that women can get an abortion in a doctor's office as opposed to a back alley. Regardless of the reasons, it is important to take on the narrative of the Focus on the Family ad and address the fact that there are women who would have lost their lives if they hadn't had an abortion. They've put a human face on their side of the story, so pro-choice advocates need to put a human face on theirs.
The response to the Focus on the Family ad could be an ad featuring a woman who would have lost her life if she hadn't had an abortion, or the family member of a woman who had been warned about continuing a pregnancy and died as a result.
This response means that the anti-choice crowd can't accuse the pro-choice movement of trying to silence them, and it gets across the message that there really are situations where abortion needs to be a choice available to women. If that kind of ad isn't available, then, something emphasizing trusting women to make the correct choice for them should be out there. This Planned Parenthood video does the trick:
Even if a pro-choice response doesn't get on the air during the Super Bowl, at least the news of the response would force the media to cover it. Or one would hope. The importance of choice or emphasizing that women should be trusted to make the choice is getting lost. So let's help this video go viral, because maybe news of it going viral will force the media to pay attention to the pro-choice message. Email, facebook and tweet the response to everyone you know.
* Note: I understand that Pam Tebow may not have actually had the choice as she was in the Philippines, where abortion has been illegal for decades at the time. That said, most people believe that she had the choice and that choice is a main focus of the ad; in order to pivot to educating the public on the importance of women having the choice, it's key to be able to set that up and then pivot.