Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam, are going to be in a Super Bowl ad. For those who aren’t college football fans, Tebow is the quarterback for the University of Florida Gators. He was the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy and led the Gators to two BCS championships. He’s also headed to the NFL draft, where he’s likely to be the top quarterback pick.
All right, you say, so a college football star is going to be in a Super Bowl ad. Big deal. But wait! The ad was purchased by the dreaded Dr. James Dobson’s pro-life Focus On the Family! And Tim’s mom will discuss her decision not to abort Tim when he was in her womb.
You see, Tim Tebow’s parents were both Christian missionaries in the Philippines. As is not uncommon, Pam Tebow contracted amoebic dysentery while pregnant with Tim. She was terribly ill, and her doctors urged her to terminate the pregnancy. She refused, and little Tim was born — and just look at him today
What an inspiring story! Isn’t that the kind of maternal love that makes Mothers Day one of the biggest holidays of the year? Not to the mainstream media. Instead of simply reporting the story, the MSM is compelled to add its own snide commentary. Over at the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart writes:
[It’s] 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.
Whether CBS is right to run this advocacy ad after rejecting others in the past, I’ll leave to others for the moment. But could possibly be hypocritical about showing that a child whom the doctors thought was doomed can grow up to be a great quarterback and a fine human being? About about encouraging women to envision their unborn baby as a person instead of a punishment?
Over at the ABC News blog, April Dudash wrings her hands over the political ramifications of the Tebows’ appearance in a pro-life ad. Daniel Smith, a UF political science professor and the faculty advisor for “Gators for Choice,” is quoted warning that the home-schooled Tebow “[has] a good chance of alienating half your fan support.” If Prof. Smith thinks that appearing in a pro-life ad is going to significantly dampen fans’ enthusiasm for Tebow, he obviously doesn’t watch much football.
The AP reports on the opposition of “women’s groups” to the ad. In an essay of approximately 500 words, the writer has three quotes opposing the ad, and only one–from Tebow himself–defending the ad. The ad is accused of “[using] sports to divide rather than unite,” of representing an “anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization,” and of defacing “the holiest day of the year” for sports fans. That’s odd — I’m a sports fan (go Irish!), and I thought Easter was the holiest day of the year. Silly me.
What’s really got these folks fired up? Why be so upset that a mom and her son are telling their inspiring story on national TV? It’s because the ad works.
When Tim Tebow appears on that ad on Super Sunday, he doesn’t just represent himself. He represents almost fifty million other people–the fifty million Tim Tebows whose mothers didn’t choose life. And he represents everyone born in the United States since 1973.
The Post‘s Capehart entitled his piece, “Tim Tebow rushes into the abortion debate.” I have news for Mr. Capehart. Tim Tebow didn’t rush into the abortion debate: the abortion debate rushed into him; in fact, he was born into it. Every person born in the United States since Roe was decided in 1973 is part of this debate, because every one of us could have been aborted by our mothers.
That’s why the MSM hates this ad. It puts a face to fifty million missing children. And when Americans start to see a human face instead of a punishment, the abortion regime will be in serious trouble.