Tim Tebow rushes into the abortion debate
Abortion rights groups are angry that CBS will run a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl from the rabidly homophobic and anti-abortion group Focus on the Family. Few have actually seen the 30-second spot. But we know that it will feature football phenom Tim Tebow, whose mother chose to ignore her doctor’s advice to terminate her pregnancy.
Did you catch that? Ms. Tebow was presented with a choice.
She was a missionary in the Philippines when she was stricken with amoebic dysentery. Doctors feared for her life and urged her to abort her fetus. That she would give birth to a son who would become the first underclassman to win the coveted Heisman Trophy is wonderful. Also wonderful is that Ms. Tebow was able to make an informed decision. Her doctors weren’t muzzled by far-right zealots who want women to carry their pregnancies to term no matter what. And she wasn’t forced by those doctors to end her pregnancy.
Focus on the Family is touting Ms. Tebow’s right to choose while trying to deny the same opportunity — the same right — to other women. Whether CBS is right to run this advocacy ad after rejecting others in the past, I’ll leave to others for the moment. But abortion rights advocates, such as the National Organization for Women, would do well to point out this hypocrisy with an ad of their own.
WashingtonPost.com
1/27/10
