Washington Post Opinion Piece, New York Times Editorial Weigh In On Antiabortion Super Bowl Ad

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 02 Feb 2010 - 4:00 PDT

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Instead of working to "block or criticize" Focus on the Family's planned antiabortion-rights Super Bowl advertisement, the abortion-rights movement "needs its own Super Bowl strategy" showing that "abortion is as tough and courageous a decision as is the decision to continue a pregnancy," Frances Kissling -- former president of Catholics for Choice -- and Kate Michelman -- former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America -- write in a Washington Post opinion piece.

The ad will feature former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam Tebow, discussing her personal story of contracting amoebic dysentery while pregnant with Tim and ignoring doctors' recommendations to have an abortion. CBS has been criticized by several abortion-rights groups for agreeing to air the ad. However, "picking on [Tebow] and his mom is not the way to go" for abortion-rights groups, Kissling and Michelman argue, adding that the "conversation is being led by Focus on the Family and its quarterback ambassador" and is "a high-profile example of the savvy way the antiabortion movement has tailored its message."

They continue, "Women's and choice groups responding to the Tebow ad should take a page from the Focus on the Family playbook." Kissling and Michelman propose a 30-second ad that would "focu[s] on one woman after another, posed in the situations of daily life." Each woman in the commercial "looks calmly into the camera and describes her different and successful choice: having a baby and giving it up for adoption, having an abortion, having a baby and raising it lovingly," they say, adding, "Each one being clear that making choices isn't easy, but that life without tough choices doesn't exist" (Kissling/Michelman, Washington Post, 1/31).

CBS 'Right' To Air Antiabortion Ad, NYT Editorial Says

Abortion-rights and women's groups that are urging CBS not to air the Focus on the Family ad "are on the wrong track," a New York Times editorial says. "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 editorial continues. CBS was "right to change its policy of rejecting paid advocacy commercials from groups other than political candidates," the editorial says. It concludes, "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" (New York Times, 1/31).

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