Complete Super Bowl Coverage

Update: New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17

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FEATURED REPORT

Video: “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”

Focus on the Family ad (MSNBC, Feb. 7, 2010) — The controversial TV spot featuring football star Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, aired during the 2010 Super Bowl. (00:30)

The Heisman Trophy Winner Who Almost Wasn’t

Opinion by Bobby Eberle
GOPUSA — The Loft
January 27, 2010

The career of University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is one of legend. Not only did he win the Heisman Trophy, college football’s highest honor, as a sophomore, he was in the running for it during his junior and senior years as well. He led the Gators to two national championships and has displayed honor and integrity at every turn.

But all of his accomplishments and all of his success could have been wiped out completely had Tim’s mother Pam Tebow not chosen life. During a mission trip, an infection led doctors to recommend that Pam Tebow have an abortion to avoid the risk of her own death during childbirth. She chose life, and now her story will be told in the form of a Super Bowl ad. Rather than celebrating the ad as a “success” story, some so-called women’s groups are blasting the ad and urging CBS to ban it.

As noted in a story on FOXNews.com college football great Tim Tebow and his mom Pam “will appear in a pro-life commercial that tells the story of his risky birth 22 years ago — an ad that critics suggest could lead to anti-abortion violence, even though none of them have seen it.”

It’s a happy story with an inspirational ending, but pro-choice critics say Focus on the Family should not be allowed to air the commercial because it advocates on behalf of a divisive issue and threatens to “throw women under the bus.”

“This organization is extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda,” said Jehmu Greene, director of the Women’s Media Center, which is coordinating a campaign to force CBS to pull the ad before it airs on Feb. 7.

Extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda? This is how this person describes Pam’s decision to give birth rather than ending a human life? Talk about intolerant! According to groups such as this, it’s perfectly fine to advocate for funds, literature, and media for ending human life. But when someone actually chooses to SAVE A LIFE that is intolerant and un-American? I see.

According to the web site NotUnderTheBus.com, which is sponsored by the Women’s Media Center, “The Women’s Media Center, and organizations dedicated to reproductive rights, tolerance, and social justice, are urging the network to immediately cancel this ad.”

First of all, I am pro-life. I think a human life should be protected and afforded basic human rights regardless of age. That’s where I stand. As the law is currently written, such protections do not completely exist and the “choice” now exists to give birth to a baby or end it’s life in the womb. So be it. What really burns me up is the fact that this organization and others like it claim to represent reproductive “rights,” but they scream and go into convulsions whenever a woman CHOOSES life over an abortion.

What’s pathetic is that groups such as this who claim to support “social justice” aren’t shouting at the tops of their lungs in SUPPORT of concepts such as adoption. Wouldn’t it be better to give the child to a loving family who wants it rather than simply advocating abortion.

I guess that’s what sums up my disdain for these groups. They don’t advocate choice as much as they advocate abortion. People choose life all the time, yet these groups treat supporters of life as the anti-Christ. They are pro-abortion … not pro-choice.

As noted in the Fox News story, Tim Tebow responded to the controversy while talking with reporters:

“I know some people won’t agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe,” he said. “[T]hat’s the reason I’m here, because my mom was a very courageous woman. So any way that I could help, I would do it.”

Because Pam Tebow chose life, she has a son who is an inspiration to all.

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Related video

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Related editorial

Super Bowl Censorship

January 31, 2010

The commercials during the Super Bowl, a showcase for the best (or worst) in TV advertising, often generate buzz and sometimes outrage. This year, viewers will see one ad that has already triggered a heated debate about abortion and censorship.

The 30-second spot, financed by the conservative religious group Focus on the Family, is said to recount the pregnancy of Pam Tebow, mother of the college football star Tim Tebow. After falling ill during a mission to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child, who became the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner.

The National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America and other voices for protecting women’s reproductive freedom have called on CBS to yank it. Their protest is puzzling and dismaying.

A letter sent to CBS by the Women’s Media Center and other groups argues that the commercial “uses one family’s story to dictate morality to the American public, and encourages young women to disregard medical advice, putting their lives at risk” — a lame attempt to portray the ad as life-threatening. Others argue that even a mild discussion of such a divisive issue has no place in the marketing extravaganza known as the Super Bowl.

The would-be censors are on the wrong track. Instead of trying to silence an opponent, advocates for allowing women to make their own decisions about whether to have a child should be using the Super Bowl spotlight to convey what their movement is all about: protecting the right of women like Pam Tebow to make their private reproductive choices.

CBS was right to change its policy of rejecting paid advocacy commercials from groups other than political candidates. After the network screens ads for accuracy and taste, viewers can watch and judge for themselves. Or they can get up from the couch and get a sandwich.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — February 7, 2009

Video

Soldier suicides exceed combat deaths (NBC Nightly News, Feb. 6, 2009) — The fight to save soldiers’ lives has moved away from front lines as a shocking rise in military suicides has prompted U.S. Army officials to step up suicide prevention efforts. NBC’s Ron Mott reports. (02:19)

Army Ponders Suicide Prevention

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said that the Army, to battle a growing suicide rate, may have to start teaching soldiers how to handle stress from the first day they take their service oath.