CBS Urged to Scrap Super Bowl Ad With Tebow, Mom

NEW YORK (AP) -- A national coalition of women's groups called on CBS on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which critics say is likely to convey an anti-abortion message.

''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.

The center was coordinating the protest with backing from the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and other groups.

CBS said it has approved the script for the 30-second ad and has given no indication that the protest would have an impact. A network spokesman, Dana McClintock, said CBS would ensure that any issue-oriented ad was ''appropriate for air.''

The ad -- paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family -- is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987 with a theme of ''Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.'' The controversy over the ad was raised Sunday when Tebow met with reporters in Mobile, Ala., before beginning preparations for next weekend's Senior Bowl.

''I know some people won't agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe,'' Tebow said. ''I've always been very convicted of it (his views on abortion) because that's the reason I'm here, because my mom was a very courageous woman. So any way that I could help, I would do it.''

Dear CatholicVote Member,

http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/ct/3873988:5719200849:m:4:122001715:68C4D94E35ADDE0828380C518D1EA8D8

Last year we fought hard to have our “Life: Imagine the Potential” ad shown during the Super Bowl. After several days of negotiations, NBC rejected the ad.

This year Focus on the Family has had success with a different network, as CBS is poised to show their own ad celebrating the accomplishments of college football star Tim Tebow next Sunday.

In 1985, Tebow’s mother Pam was advised to abort her child. She decided against it citing her Christian faith as a source of hope that her son would be ok. Her son, Tim Tebow, won the Heisman Trophy in 2007.

While the ad has been approved, pro-abortion groups are now urging CBS to censor the Super Bowl ad!

Sign our group letter to CBS. Tell them not to give in to pressure and show the ad!

And tell your friends to visit www.CatholicVote.org to join us!

It still amazes us how vicious pro-abortion advocates can be, especially when they don’t get their way, or sense that their “cause” is being threatened in a serious way.

For all their talk about respect of mothers, of choice, and of differences of opinions, none of those things apply to actual pro-life people. Or in this case, the mother of Tim Tebow.

Here is just one example. It’s important for us to read this and realize the level of anger we are facing. This from Tommy Craggs at DeadSpin:

"I’m guessing the Tebows’ ad, for spanky Jim Dobson’s Focus on the Family, will extol the glories of family and motherhood and the value of children and other seemingly innocuous fare; it will also be 30 seconds of anti-abortion dog-whistling to the Christian right on a frequency somewhere beyond the range of only CBS executives. The moral, implicit or otherwise, will be: don’t terminate your pregnancy; that blastocyst might turn into Tim Tebow.

"... But the Tebows’ message should be called for what it is, and what it is is outright quackery that doesn’t differ appreciably from my going on television with a toy stethoscope and urging America to start treating itself with leeches."

Breathtaking, isn’t it?

And this sort of vitriol is not even limited to individuals. As Matt Archibold points out, the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a letter to CBS, is flat-out claiming Tebow’s mom is a liar!

The wider audience however – those who are not passionately pro-life or pro-abortion – are seeing both sides of this issue for who they are, and that’s always a good thing for pro-lifers.

Here at CatholicVote, we believe in supporting Tim Tebow, the brave choice of his mother, and the smart decision made by the CBS executives.

Please click here to tell CBS you support their decision to air the Tim Tebow Commercial (and tell your friends, too!)

Sincerely,

Brian Burch and Thomas Peters,
CatholicVote.org

P.S. The fact that we are talking about a successful pro-life ad airing during the Super Bowl speaks volumes about our movement. We are growing more confident and more effective every day. Anyone involved in efforts to affirm the dignity of human life should feel proud next Sunday when this ad is broadcast to hundreds of millions around the world.

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