PrintJanuary 31, 2010
What's Wrong with Celebrating Life?
University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow hasn't even made it to the NFL yet, but he is going to be a star of the Super Bowl. The Heisman Trophy-winning passer for the Florida Gators is the first college football player to both rush and pass for twenty touchdowns in a season, and he is the first sophomore to win the highly coveted trophy. Nevertheless, his recent fame comes from an ad that will be placed among dozens of others during one of the most popular televised events of the year.
Even though the ad won't be run until Super Bowl Sunday on February 7, Mr. Tebow is already becoming a household name. His premature celebrity comes not from his athletic ability on the gridiron, but from the mere fact that he's alive. You see, during the thirty-second spot, his mother Pam reportedly will be talking about the fact that she became ill while pregnant with her fifth son during a mission in the Philippines. Ms. Tebow repudiated her doctor's advice to abort the child, and she gave birth to Tim. Ordinarily, this would rank up there with many other heart-warming success stories that celebrate life.
However, abortion proponents don't view life as something to celebrate. Hence, they are protesting the decision by CBS Television to broadcast the $2.5-million ad, which is sponsored by and paid for by Focus on the Family. "An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year; an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center. Also joining in the protest are the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority.
You've got to admit that these pro-abortion groups become more contemptible every year. Apparently, it's not enough for them to advocate the killing of fetuses in the womb, even by means of that most despicable of procedures, the late-term abortion. It's not enough that millions of unborn babies have ended up in waste disposal systems across the country since the Supreme Court in 1973 gave women the right to decide if a child should live or die.
Now, in 2010, women who made the decision to give birth to their children are being criticized for celebrating their views regarding the sanctity of life. One protest letter from The Women's Media Center took some vicious shots at the sponsoring organization and included some threats toward CBS about viewership.
By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.
In thinly veiled language, that means the pro-abortion crowd will attempt to boycott the network for allowing a mother to extol the virtues of her decision to choose life. Keep in mind that these are the people who call themselves pro-choice. Evidently, the only choice they agree with is abortion. That's why I refer to them as pro-abortion, not pro-choice.
During a radio talk show interview, Ms. Greene railed against the network and the sponsor of the ad, while fraudulently claiming that seventy percent of Americans are in favor of Roe v. Wade. The host quickly corrected her by citing surveys from the New York Times, hardly a bastion of conservatism, which indicated that people are now evenly divided on the abortion issue. Inasmuch as Ms. Greene had been caught trying to spread some false propaganda on the airwaves; she backed off and went into another diatribe about inequality and homophobia. The host then asked why she didn't simply find a sponsor for an ad that celebrates her group's position.
Can you imagine a commercial broadcast to tens of millions of families, telling them how important it is for women to choose to abort their babies? Even some of the groups that have a benign reputation in the pro-abortion arena would have a tough time trying to make such an ad seem civilized. Instead of trying to find a receptive audience for their negative and cynical approach to life, they'd rather impugn the motives of those who proudly announce to the world that they will staunchly support the rights of the most vulnerable among us -- the unborn. CBS is to be applauded for their courage in refusing to knuckle under to threats and intimidation from these radical groups who have had their way for too long. Moreover, Pam Tebow, her son Tim, and Focus on the Family are to be especially congratulated for celebrating the gift of life.
Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the executive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas. E-mail Bob.
