New York Times Defends Pro-Life Ad Featuring Tim Tebow, Mom’s Non-Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 31, 2010
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — The New York Times is no bastion of pro-life thought and has taken a consistently aggressive pro-abortion stance over the years. In what may come as a shock to pro-life advocates, the liberal newspaper issued an editorial today taking abortion advocates to task for blasting an ad featuring Tim Tebow.
As LifeNews.com has reported, the ad, sponsored by Focus on the Family, will reportedly focus on the story of Tebow’s birth.
Tebow’s mother, Pam Tebow, rejected a doctor’s suggestion to get an abortion when she became ill on a missions trip to the Philippines during her pregnancy with Tim. Tebow gave birth to Tim and he famously won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and led the Florida Gators to a college football championship.
The Focus on the Family ad has drawn attacks from abortion advocates, who have called on CBS to cancel its plans to allow the ad to air before and after the Super Bowl, and feminist attorney Gloria Allred has made the claim Pam Tebow made up her story about rejecting an abortion.
The New York Times weighed in on the debate in an official editorial titled "Super Bowl Censorship."
"The National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America and other voices … have called on CBS to yank it," the Times editorial board wrote. "Their protest is puzzling and dismaying."
The Times noted how the Women’s Media Center (for a collection of pro-abortion groups) sent a letter to CBS calling for rejecting the ad, saying the commercial “uses one family’s story to dictate morality to the American public, and encourages young women to disregard medical advice, putting their lives at risk."
Responding to the claim, the Times calls it "a lame attempt to portray the ad as life-threatening."
"Others argue that even a mild discussion of such a divisive issue has no place in the marketing extravaganza known as the Super Bowl. The would-be censors are on the wrong track," the Times writes.
Although it uses flowery language about abortion and its destruction of human life, the New York Times essentially says what many pro-life advocates have been saying about the response to the ad: "pro-choice" groups are proving how they are really pro-abortion by opposing an ad celebrating one mother’s decision to choose life.
"Instead of trying to silence an opponent, advocates for allowing women to make their own decisions about whether to have a child should be using the Super Bowl spotlight to convey what their movement is all about: protecting the right of women like Pam Tebow to make their private reproductive choices," the Times writes.
"CBS was right to change its policy of rejecting paid advocacy commercials from groups other than political candidates," the Times adds.
Ultimately, the Times says abortion advocates should exercise their so-called right to choose whether or not to see the ad when it airs.
"After the network screens ads for accuracy and taste, viewers can watch and judge for themselves. Or they can get up from the couch and get a sandwich," the newspaper concludes.
Related web sites:
Support Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad – https://www.facebook.com/TebowSuperBowlAd
Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.
