News

Friday January 29, 2010


CBS News Legal Analyst Slams Feminist Critics of Tebow Super Bowl Ad

By John-Henry Westen

(Petition to Support CBS’s Decision to Air the Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad)

WASHINGTON, DC, January 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The campaign being waged by pro-abortion feminist groups against the pro-life Super Bowl ad starring college football star Tim Tebow appears to be backfiring.

In recent days former VP candidate Sarah Palin and a CBS official both have warned of the negative image the feminist groups are casting for themselves by opposing the ad. At the same time, the pro-abortion campaign has galvanized pro-life groups into mounting a firm response, through petitions, Facebook groups, and other mediums, which have gained widespread and growing support.

CBS News legal analyst Jan Crawford has written an article on the CBS News blog criticizing the pro-abortion campaign, saying, “According to the women’s rights groups, Pam Tebow shouldn’t be able to talk about her choice.” Crawford adds: “They won’t even allow the discussion. And that shows just how much the issue of abortion has been taken out of public discourse. Because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, you can’t even talk about it. That point of view is not allowed to exist.”

Crawford concluded: “Here’s the great irony of all this: Whether or not the ‘Celebrate Life’ ad ever sees the light of day, the women’s groups that made it an issue have played right into Focus on the Family’s focus. They’ve gotten the abortion debate out in the public.”

Sarah Palin made her comments on the controversy on her Facebook page this week. Her post was titled, “Women’s Rights Groups: Your Double Standard is Showing.”

Palin said: “My message to these groups who are inexplicably offended by a pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life message airing during the Super Bowl: please concentrate on empowering women, help with efforts to prevent unexpected pregnancies, stay consistent with your message that for too long women have been made to feel like sex objects in our ‘modern’ culture and that we can expect better in 2010.”

Sarah Palin also had a message for CBS: “just do the right thing. Don’t cave. Have the backbone to run the ad.”

But the pro-abortion National Organization for Women (NOW) and company are continuing to pursue the matter full-steam ahead, with headline-grabbing feminist lawyer Gloria Allred now trying to bring down the ad with the threat of legal action and claims that the Tebows’ story is untrue.

In a letter to Les Moonves of CBS, available at RadarOnline.com, Allred says she wants the ad pulled because it is allegedly guilty of “misleading advertising.”

Allred, who has not seen the ad, charges that when Tebow’s mother was being advised by doctors in the Philippines to consider an abortion, it was illegal there to have one. Allred says that the ad should disclose this information, otherwise it is “misleading.” She implies that Tebow’s mother has in fact falsified the story of her son’s birth, referring to the story as the “purported story.”

“If this ad airs and fails to disclose that abortions were illegal at the time that Ms. Tebow made her ‘choice’, then I intend to file a formal complaint of misleading advertising with those federal commissions,” Allred concludes.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has responded to Allred’s accusations, however, saying that “What is really misleading is Allred’s duplicity.” Donohue points out that while representing Amber Frey in a case related to the death of Laci Peterson, Allred emphasized that in the case of Peterson’s murder there were two victims – her and her unborn child. “And the fact that there are two individuals who are dead there, Laci and Connor, that has to be the most important consideration of everything,” said Allred at the time.

“For once, she was right,” quips Donohue.

“Allred’s confession in 2003 undercuts her credibility — to say nothing of her ethical standing — to make the case against this Super Bowl ad,” Donohuge concluded. “She knows that Tim Tebow is alive today because his mother did not abort him.”

(To sign the petition supporting CBS’s decision to air the Tebow ad, click here)