Anti abortion ad to air during Super Bowl

[IttyBittyFem]

HOW DARE THEY!!!!!

I truly believe their minds would change should something (unfortunately) happen to one of their children. Say for example, one of their children was a victim of a violent rape. Would they condone that pregnancy? What if it was incest? What if it the pregnancy threatened the life of the birth mother?

How DARE anyone believe they have the right to tell me (or anyone else) what to do with my own body? They have NO RIGHT dammit.

Shame shame shame on anyone that financially benefits from this. And the Super Bowl no less. It takes alot to get me to the point where I verbally express my anger, however, when I do, I have the ability to chew you up and spit you out into the gutter you crawled out from. I know NO fear. This topic is so irritating to me that I don't believe I could physically be in the company of anyone that feels so strongly they have the right to tell a complete stranger what to do with their own bodies.

[Queerasfck]

I just read CBS has received numerous calls and emails both critical and supportive of it's abortion ad. They said they would welcome more advocacy ads. You can read the story here.

[Soon]

Thank God for Tim Tebow--Right After These Messages

--Jodi Kasten


Tim Tebow is the second coming of the Christ child according to most Florida fans. If you ask them, he single-handedly delivered two BCS championships, won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and just one touch from Tebow can heal leprosy or rickets. There’s no doubt that Tebow is a magnificent ball player. He’s a great role model, a leader and a very public proponent of abstinence until marriage. I have to applaud the dude’s tenacity in that arena. I can only imagine the legions of women who have thrown themselves at Tim Tebow’s cleats.

Like any admirable young man, he loves his mother. He loves his mother so much that he’s going to appear with her in an ad during the Super Bowl on CBS. Evidently, while on a Christian mission trip to the Philippines in 1987, Pam Tebow got sick while pregnant with her fifth child. Doctors counseled her to have an abortion. She refused and Tim Tebow was born.

All abortion debate aside, that is a heartwarming story. Tebow is a fine young man with amazing prospects. His leadership and squeaky clean image are a welcome change in a world of sports stars who work games into their schedules between weapons arrests and affairs. We do need more Tim Tebows in the world.

But, in spite of the message, many believe that this anti-abortion ad has no place in the commercial line-up on Super Bowl Sunday. My first yellow flag was thrown when I saw who sponsored the ad. This isn’t Nike saying, “Just Do It.” This is Focus on the Family – a conservative Christian group. The funds for the ad, according to Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger, came from “very generous friends” rather than the group’s general fund. One thirty second commercial during the Super Bowl is selling for $2.5 - $2.8 million.

Schneeberger was “a little surprised” that the proposed ad has caused a furor. The Women’s Media Center’s Jemhu Greene says, “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.” She went on to say, “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.”

As election seasons stretch out to cover 90% of the year, it’s conceivable that instead of seeing flatulent horses selling Budweiser, we could soon be seeing many more ads bought by political action committees at the Super Bowl. Furthermore, with the recent Supreme Court ruling about corporate political funding, we could soon be seeing “Proposition 8 – Brought to you by Sarah Palin for President and Pepsi. Palin & Pepsi – two great tastes that taste great together!”

I’m sure that Focus on the Family believes that this is not an anti-abortion message on the surface. Instead, they are reminding every woman who is in the heartbreaking position of terminating a pregnancy for any reason that they could be “killing” a Heisman trophy winner. The worst of this for me is that Tebow’s mother is sending the message that women should ignore the advice of their doctors and continue any and all pregnancies, no matter what the peril may be to their own lives.

If Tebow and his mother were telling a different story, perhaps one where she thought she didn’t have the money for another child or she was pregnant out of wedlock, I’d shake my head and say, “There’s another anti-choice ad riding on the backs of someone’s fame and money.” But, this ad actually endangers the lives of women. How many women, just like me, who are told that they might die if they continue a pregnancy, will refuse abortions because they are reminded that the baby they have could be a star?

Football fame is powerful stuff in the south, as is religion and the Focus on the Family group. There is a distinct possibility that women will die because of this ad. It has no place in the Super Bowl or anywhere else. Considering Focus on the Family’s deep association with Rev. Ted Haggard's prostitution and drug scandal, it appears that they would do best to focus on their own families for once.

[SuperFemme]

I wonder if the Courage Campaign will sponsor a similar ad.

After all, I'm adopted and the Christ Camp thinks that is an easy answer.

My bio mom (whoever she is) can tell the world that this blonde in a pony outfit could have been murdered. Behold. I've gone on to the the best damn Queer that I can be.

Wipes a tear.

I feel so inspirational. I mean, I made it all the way through Catholic High School and abstained from being a heterosexual.

sniffle.

[Write14u]

Just a few quick thoughts here, as someone who is intimately connected to the sports world.

First off, I think it's asinine that people put athletes on a pedestal and demand they be role models. BUT, since they do, I have to say that Tim Tebow is certainly a good one for that. Believe me, sports journalists have long wanted to debunk the TT mystique as he seems to be too good to be true.

As for this ad, it just made me cringe when I saw it come across the wires --- for all the reasons everyone has already stated. I was looking for the CBS story on how it has relaxed its standards (conveniently now, not a few years ago), but Ezee had already posted it.

The biggest thing I see is is this: the only way to fight it, it seems, is fire with fire. Some pro-choice group should pony up and go with a counter ad. CBS would be hypocritcal to not air it, as well. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen and all the rhetoric in the world from those groups won't erase the lasting images of this ad.

[DELSDAUGHTER]

Originally Posted by Write14u

Just a few quick thoughts here, as someone who is intimately connected to the sports world.

First off, I think it's asinine that people put athletes on a pedestal and demand they be role models. BUT, since they do, I have to say that Tim Tebow is certainly a good one for that. Believe me, sports journalists have long wanted to debunk the TT mystique as he seems to be too good to be true.

As for this ad, it just made me cringe when I saw it come across the wires --- for all the reasons everyone has already stated. I was looking for the CBS story on how it has relaxed its standards (conveniently now, not a few years ago), but Ezee had already posted it.

The biggest thing I see is is this: the only way to fight it, it seems, is fire with fire. Some pro-choice group should pony up and go with a counter ad. CBS would be hypocritical to not air it, as well. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen and all the rhetoric in the world from those groups won't erase the lasting images of this ad.

maybe we should gather together and sponsor a pro-gay marriage ad....see how the religious right like our ad and theirs running back to back.....

[owen4u1904]

Originally Posted by IttyBittyFem

HOW DARE THEY!!!!!

I truly believe their minds would change should something (unfortunately) happen to one of their children. Say for example, one of their children was a victim of a violent rape. Would they condone that pregnancy? What if it was incest? What if it the pregnancy threatened the life of the birth mother?

How DARE anyone believe they have the right to tell me (or anyone else) what to do with my own body? They have NO RIGHT dammit.

Shame shame shame on anyone that financially benefits from this. And the Super Bowl no less. It takes alot to get me to the point where I verbally express my anger, however, when I do, I have the ability to chew you up and spit you out into the gutter you crawled out from. I know NO fear. This topic is so irritating to me that I don't believe I could physically be in the company of anyone that feels so strongly they have the right to tell a complete stranger what to do with their own bodies.

I very much agree with you on all this. I am a person who did the adoption thing, but it was very hard emotionally. With having my adoption I fully support pro choice. I do not like abortion, but I am not going to tell someone else to do with their body for the reasons you stated above. What if it was a rape, what if the mother would be hurt in the pregnancy process? And then you have to think about just not the baby though. What if a year after the person who gave their child up for adoption got so depressed because they was told to not have an abortion and do something they should not do. I know it is not something good to think about, but its the truth. I will argue this point till the end of time and I will speak it loud and clear too.

[Soon]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oNWi8fXOfg&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Raging Grannies Rip CBS Anti-Choice Super Bowl Ad[/ame]

[Soon]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utcxpuHF7jg"]YouTube- Sean James and Al Joyner respond to the Tebow Super Bowl ad[/ame]

[Queerasfck]

Sometimes, just to amuse myself I will listen to Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I don't listen that often or that long because I am just listening to Sirus radio in my gf's car, so I'm usually on a quick errand. Even though I haven't listened all that much I can pretty much predict her answers for a mulitude of senarios. Today, inbetween helping someone decide if they should take their eight and nine year olds to a Bon Jovi concert (no, they shouldn't get to go--second hand smoke from marijuana) and advising someone if they should disown their sister (yes, you should if she continually rains on your parade) she raved about how much she loved CBS for running the Focus on the Family ad. She's so annoying.......

[Soon]

There's a new Super Bowl surprise from Focus on the Family: a second ad.

[Soon]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abzJpxTjzZ0"]YouTube- Cecile Richards Responds to the Tebow Ad[/ame]

[Write14u]

Let me throw a few last thoughts out there before the big game.
First, as I already checked in, I'm very much pro-choice. I'm not in favor of abortions, but I firmly believe women should have the choice regarding their bodies.

My roommate and I (he also is a sports junkie who works at a newspaper) have also been debating this issue throughout the week.

Then, a great friend of mine pointed me to this column from a sports columnist I definitely respect. As I read through it, my thoughts were going everywhere. I was like WTF are you doing defending this ad. But the column made me think. And in the end, I couldn't disagree with what Sally wrote.

Because here's the deal about Tim Tebow: He is not an in-your-face evangelist. He never approached the media about his trips to the Phillipines. He simply was asked at SEC media days (I was there) what he did over the summer. Boom! Media jumped on it, great story. Then the following year, he was asked about his celibacy. Yes, Tebow appears to be too good to be true.
But here's the thing. People are always harping on pro athletes to be better role models? Why? Because whether they want it, kids still emulate them.
I don't agree with this ad at all, but Tim Tebow as a role model is something I'll support any day.
I agree with telling kids about condoms and making them available because they will experiment. But I also don't see any problem with one guy that is revered saying, "Hey, it's not a bad thing to wait." Maybe one or two guys or girls will wait because of it. Maybe then there will be less people having to make that hard choice about abortion.

This ad leaves me feeling very torn, but in the end, I've come to realize that one guy standing up for abstinence isn't a bad thing in this world. There are a lot of pro athletes doing great things with charity foundations, but they're always overshadowed by the jerks and thugs. This is one guy who is a good role model and he's out there in the spotlight for a minute.

I would hope that CBS would broaden its thoughts some, but don't foresee it happening. I won't be boycotting the Super Bowl over this one ad, however. I don't think one 30-second ad (which is airing in the first quarter, btw Toughy), or even two of them, will influence that many people to change their minds.

I still don't like this ad, but Dean made a good point. Sometimes you bring more attention to something than is deserved. Because of the hoopla, yes there will be more people watching this ad.

My humble 2 cents.

Originally Posted by Bob

Usually, when I want the opinion of a multiply-concussed, bible-thumping, former college football star, I go down to the local Jiffy-Lube.

Speaking up or answering questions when asked or wearing visible eye-black in support of his faith does not make Tebow a bible thumper. Believe me. I know allllll about bible thumpers. Grew up among them.

Originally Posted by Legendryder

Well, I just read that ole' Tim blew it with the Pro Scouts. He is what I always thought he was, a college football player. He does NOT have the skills to make it in the pro game, and never has. If you can't take a snap from center, you are not gonna get to the big show. The scouts did give a wonderful eye roll at his "talent" however.

Funny thing is this: If I had to put my money on ONE person to make it, I'd put it on this kid. His determination in unbelievable. Bottom line is he is a winner. Besides, the NFL is shock full of guys who were initially written off by the NFL or drafted low: Joe Montana, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady. Those names ring a bell?

[IttyBittyFem]

Originally Posted by rbentley1904

I very much agree with you on all this. I am a person who did the adoption thing, but it was very hard emotionally. With having my adoption I fully support pro choice. I do not like abortion, but I am not going to tell someone else to do with their body for the reasons you stated above. What if it was a rape, what if the mother would be hurt in the pregnancy process? And then you have to think about just not the baby though. What if a year after the person who gave their child up for adoption got so depressed because they was told to not have an abortion and do something they should not do. I know it is not something good to think about, but its the truth. I will argue this point till the end of time and I will speak it loud and clear too.

Thank you so much for writing this. I AM an adoptive parent also. I adopted my identical boys 23 years ago at birth.

HOWEVER, as a victim of a BRUTAL rape, I feel VERY STRONGLY that every woman has the choice to do what she wants to do to her body.

I often wonder if any of these people who so strongly believe they have a right to tell other people what to do with their own bodies have every been, or had a very close loved one brutally raped. Would they want that victim to go through an entire pregnancy carrying a child from a rape that practically KILLED them?

I acknowledge how blessed I am for the opportunity to adopt my two sons. Their birth mother made her choice, hence, I have the opportunity to now be a mother.

And one more thing - I'm not so sure how I would feel about going through a pregnancy resulting from a brutal rape (by 3 men) and then giving that child up for adoption. If these sick men passed their brutal genes on to the child, what type of person would they turn out to be? Perhaps it wouldn't have effected that child at all, however, what if it did?

[Andrew, Jr.]

I thought the ad was weak. I had no clue it was actually about pro-life. I thought it was about Timmy Tebow being a Heisman Trophy winner, and a Univ. of Florida star QB. I thought maybe it had to do with a new medicine for hyperactivity. Go figure.

[Write14u]

One last note to wrap up this thread, perhaps.
The Tebow ad ranked 73/73 for viewership for the Super Bowl.
In case you were wondering. LOL
Not sure how the rankings went, but here is a blog with the results.