Anti-Choice Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad Must Go

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-01-27 15:42:00 UTC
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A couple weeks ago, we reported on the anti-choice Super Bowl advertisement featuring college football star Tim Tebow, financed by none other than the anti-choice, anti-queer organization Focus on the Family. In the meantime, women's rights groups have been amped up the pressure on CBS to reject this ad and the offensive message it sends -- especially given their previous policy against accepting controversial advocacy advertising, which led to the rejection of a United Church of Christ commercial expressing the radical notion that churches be free of discrimination. This is a blatant double-standard.

Quick recap: word on the street is that the intended ad will feature Tebow and his mother telling the story about how she chose to continue her pregnancy despite a doctor's advice that her life was endangered. The message: don't get an abortion, because that fetus could be the next college football star! Unless, of course, you're not as lucky as Tebow's mother was and actually do die from pregnancy complications. The doc didn't call it "life-threatening" for nothing.

The ad's sponsor, Focus on the Family, calls itself a pro-family organization. In case you're wondering, pro-family means: anti-choice, anti-queer, anti-sex ed, anti-multiculturalism. Founder James Dobson is known for his assertion that abortion, cursing, and other "immorality" has displeased God, suggesting this had a hand in causing 9/11.

Not particularly surprisingly, Sarah Palin has thrown her support behind the ad, denouncing women's organizations for "covertly and overtly disrespecting what Mrs. Tebow, Bristol, and millions of other women have chosen to do." I'm sorry, did she says "chosen"? Why Sarah, perhaps you're not clear on this, but Focus on the Family doesn't support women's choices. It supports depriving women of control over their own bodies. Palin and Mrs. Tebow have every right to choose not to have an abortion, a personal decision between a woman and her doctor -- not something you should drop five million dollars on, to show an ad geared toward gaining influence and power over depriving other women of that right to make the same, or a different choice.

As has been said (and printed on bumper stickers) many times before: Focus on the Family, focus on your own damn family. CBS: score a touchdown for women rejecting this offensive anti-choice ad from an extremely intolerant organization.

Photo credit: RMtip21

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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