• Article Tools
• Print
• RSS

Friday Night Lights

What This Year's NFL Season Has Taught Us About Women's Rights

by Margaret Datiles 

When Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus praise Jesus as the Savior during nationally-broadcasted music awards programs, no one bats an eye. When professional athletes thank God after scoring a winning point, reporters offer them the microphone. But when football prodigy Tim Tebow decides to share on national TV the story of his mother’s heroic choice to give birth to him after receiving medical advice to have an abortion, he is attacked on all sides by pro-abortion groups, and a media frenzy ensues.

Tim Tebow’s story is all over the news. A winner of the Heisman Trophy, the former Florida Gaters quarterback is not only one of the most celebrated college football players of all time, but a pro-life, evangelical Christian who is proud that his mother chose life over abortion. 

The harsh reaction of pro-abortion activist groups to the news that Focus on the Family bought a CBS Super Bowl ad featuring Tebow and his mother makes us think about the way the “right to choose” is portrayed by abortion advocates.  It offers us a chance to reflect on our understanding of women’s rights, as well as the role of pro-life Christians who have a public presence.

The National Organization for Women (NOW), Women’s Media Center and National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) launched a nation-wide campaign to persuade CBS not to run Focus on the Family’s “Celebrate Life, Celebrate Family” ad. 

The hypocrisy of abortion rights groups has never been more apparent.  What abortion advocates like NOW and NARAL don’t seem to understand is that the right created by Roe v. Wade is not just a right to have an abortion, but, in the Supreme Court’s words, a right to “choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.” Indeed, the Supreme Court has also described the right as one to decide “to bear or beget a child.” 

According to the authors of Roe v. Wade, the right to choose life for your child is equal to the right to choose an abortion. If this is true, what’s the big deal about telling the true story of a woman who exercised her “right to choose” by choosing life for her child?  You would think that women’s rights advocates would be happy to hear of any story where a woman was able to freely exercise her “right to choose.” But that’s just it – abortion advocates are not true advocates for women. Instead, they consistently try to hide from the public the fact that the “right to choose” also includes the right to choose life. 

Marjorie Dannensfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, hit the nail on the head when she commented on pro-choice groups’ efforts to pull the CBS ad off the air: “What is real here is their desperation to keep full information from women. … Shouldn’t the ‘pro-choice’ position respect Pam Tebow’s decision to choose life?”

She also stated, “Women can be trusted with information, and they certainly don’t need to be protected from the idea that if they have a crisis pregnancy that they can choose life.”

CBS indirectly acknowledged the hypocrisy of favoring the right to choose abortion over the right to choose life in the name of “women’s rights.”  In their official statement defending their decision to air the ad, CBS declared: “Our standards and practices process continues to adhere to a policy that ensures all ads on all sides of an issue are appropriate for air.”

Jehmu Green, president of Women’s Media Center, told Washington Post reporters: “An ad that uses sports to divide rather than unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year.”

When Green referred to Pam Tebow’s decision to bring her pregnancy to term as something that will “divide rather than unite” Americans, she was dead wrong.  Americans are not so divided on the abortion issue as Green would have you believe.  Contrary to Green’s apparent opinion, all of the most recent polls (including ABC, Washington Post, Zogby and CBS polls) show that the majority of Americans favor laws restricting abortion.  A 2009 Gallup poll demonstrated that, when asked to choose, the majority of Americans prefer to call themselves “pro-life” rather than “pro-choice.” And last summer, a Marist poll found that 86% of Americans favor significant restrictions on abortion – including 60% who believe abortion should be limited to the rare cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger, or else should not be allowed at all.

Suffice it to say that Tim Tebow’s story unites Americans and does not divide them.  It tells the story of a woman who exercised her “right to choose” by choosing life, a choice that is overwhelmingly supported by Americans. 

Last of all, the controversy over the ad has brought national attention to Tim Tebow’s personal life and beliefs.  His pro-life stance in the face of public criticism is admirable and serves as an example of how Christians can be witnesses of Christ. The youngest person to ever win the Heisman Trophy, Tebow represents a new generation of pro-life Americans. Tim Tebow shows us that defending unborn life and standing up for Christian beliefs is something that all Christians, of all ages, professions and walks of life, are called to do. 

This year’s Super Bowl season has left all of us with a little more to think about than just football. It’s given us a chance to reflect on the true nature of a woman’s “right to choose” and has left us inspired by the growing generation of young Americans willing to defend the gift of motherhood and the sanctity of human life.

---

(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)