Focus On the Family's Offensive Superbowl Ad

You've probably heard that Focus on the Family has bought airtime during the Superbowl this weekend to air a commercial featuring University of Florida Quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mom Pam Tebow talking about how Mrs. Tebow chose not to abort her pregnancy in 1987.

According to the stories surrounding the ad, Mrs. Tebow became severly ill during a missionary trip to the Philippines in 1987 and doctors advised her to abort her pregnancy, but she chose not to do so. And, of course, it was the right decision because look at what she would have given up . . . a 2-time national champion and Heisman Trophy winner who will go on to do who knows what in the NFL. Yes, God blessed Mrs. Tebow for making the right choice.

CBS is happily running the obviously slanted ad because it has evidently changed its policy about not airing advocacy ads during the Superbowl. As expected, pro-choice groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood are up in arms and want CBS to reject this ad. Petitions have been widely circulated via email, Twitter, and Facebook. Grannies in South Florida have created a YouTube video opposing CBS and telling us exactly what they think CBS stands for (NSFW). I'm sure boycotts are planned.

Personally, I find this ad offensive. But not for the reason you might think. I don't find it offensive because it espouses a viewpoint I don't share; although to be sure, I find Focus on the Family's decidedly anti-choice, anti-sex ed, anti-birth control, and homophobic agenda highly offensive. In fact, I don't even think CBS should reject it because it's an advocacy ad. I find it offensive because it Focus on the Family and Mrs. Tebow are quite possibly lying.

If, as she's long held, Mrs. Tebow was actually in the Phillipines when she became ill (and there's no reason to believe that's untrue since her son was, in fact, born there), then it's difficult to believe that any doctor recommended that she abort her pregnancy because abortion had been illegal for any reason whatsoever in the Phillipines since 1930. In fact, Articles 256, 258, and 259 specifically require "imprisonment for the woman who undergoes the abortion, as well as for any person who assists in the procedure, even if they be the woman's parents, a physician or midwife." Certainly, as the New York Times reported in 2005, there's a huge network for obtaining abortions and tonics that will induce abortion, but it seems to be highly unregulated, illegal, and causes many women to die. That doesn't surprise me at all. But given the huge influence of the Catholic Church and the Phillipine laws, are we really to believe that any reputable doctor in the Phillipines would risk his career by recommending a woman break the law? I, for one, find that difficult to believe.

That said, I actually think it's okay for CBS to run an advocacy ad. To refuse to air an ad just because it's controversial is a slippery slope and I worry about how it would reek of censorship and be anti-First Amendment. If CBS refuses to air the ad just because it's anti-choice and millions of women are offended, what's the next thing that gets censored? Will it be something that I believe in? Probably. In order to protect the freedom of speech we all hold so dear, it's sometimes necessary to let people say offensive things.

What I wish would happen is that NARAL or Planned Parenthood would buy ad time disputing the facts of the ad. I doubt Focus on the Family is going to tell the millions of people watching the Superbowl that had Mrs. Tebow gotten an abortion in the Phillipines, she and her doctor (and maybe even her husband) would have gone to prison. But why isn't anyone else?

Blogging for Choice: Trust Women

Today is the 37th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision allowing, for the first time, for safe and legal abortions all across the country. It allowed a woman to choose for herself whether to carry her pregnancy to term. The Court said, in essence, that it trusted women to control their own bodies.

I know there are millions of people who passionately believe that life begins at the moment of conception, that all abortion is murder and that abortion is immoral and goes against God's plan, and they are 100% anti-abortion in any circumstances. That's okay. Not to sound glib, but to them, I say, don't get an abortion. And it is my sincerest wish that none of those people are ever in a situation where they are faced with a decision to terminate a pregnancy for any reason.

But please trust me to know what's right for my life and my body. Please trust that I make judicious, thoughtful decisions. That I KNOW what an abortion is. That I've explored all the options. That I do not need to be condescended to by being forced into having an ultrasound prior to exercising control over my body or have a waiting period because I haven't agonized enough already.

What I know for sure is that there are many circumstances in life where being pregnant is an unduly burdensome physical health or mental health risk for the woman. What I know for sure is that not all babies are conceived out of love. Not all men are happy to discover they have helped create a child and they strike out against women either physically, verbally, or both. Rape happens. Incest happens. And even though we don't like to talk about these things and many women are afraid to ever admit they are survivors of either rape or incest or domestic violence, they happen all too often.

I've never had an abortion, but I know many women who have. These women are thoughtful women who did not make the decision to terminate a pregnancy in haste or without agonizing over it. They made their decision with the full awareness of what they were doing and why they were doing it. Their individual reasons are not important. What's important is that the decision they agonized over was ultimately right for them.

My personal belief is that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. That's right, rare. I am pro-choice, not because I think abortion is great, but because I trust women to make prudent and carefully considered decisions on what is right for their lives and because I don't pretend to know all that goes into any decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Because I trust women, I am pro-choice.

Blogging for Choice

Next Friday, January 22nd, on the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I'll be Blogging for Choice.

You see, I believe that control over my own body and every woman's right to control over her body is fundamental. And for the record, for me, this has nothing to do with when life does or does not begin and at what point an embryo or fetus is a person. It's not a religious thing. It's not about whether I think abortion is right or wrong. It's about reproductive rights and it's a health care thing. And I'll be blogging about it and the Blogging for Choice topic of "What does Trust Women mean to me?" next Friday.

You can join in too. Visit NARAL Pro-Choice America for all the information, to sign up, and spread the word.