Friday February 5, 2010
Clash of the Abortion Titans: Planned Parenthood Launches ‘Pro-Choice’ Football Ad
By Kathleen Gilbert
February 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Striking back at the pro-life Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has issued its own abortion-themed football video, claiming that the true lesson of Tebow’s story is that society should “respect and trust women” to make the decision to abort their child. The Washington Post also added to the football-themed abortion debate this week, re-publishing a 1989 video of NFL players who condemned the destruction of unborn life for an American Life League video.
The Tebow spot, entitled “Celebrate family, celebrate life,” is sponsored by Focus on the Family. Although details have not been released, the advertisement is expected to highlight Pam Tebow’s decision not to abort her son Tim, now a top college football star, against the advice of doctors. A coalition of 30 pro-abortion groups, led by the National Organization for Women, the Women’s Media Center, and the Feminist Majority Foundation, have strenuously fought the advertisement, but Super Bowl host CBS has stood its ground in allowing the spot.
Planned Parenthood responded by launching a video Tuesday on YouTube, in which former NFL player Sean James and Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner directly address the Tebow ad.
“There’s a lot of talk leading up to the Super Bowl about an ad focused on sports and family,” James says. “The ad features a great football player, Tim Tebow and his loving mother, discussing a difficult medical decision she made for her family,” he says. “I respect and honor Mrs. Tebow’s decision.”
“I want my daughters to live in a world where everyone’s decisions are respected,” adds Joyner.
James continues: “My mom showed me that women are strong and wise. She taught me that only women can make the best decisions about their health and their future.”
“We’re working toward the day when every woman will be valued; where every woman’s decision about her health and her family will be trusted and respected,” says James. Joyner concludes: “We celebrate our families by supporting our mothers, by supporting our daughters, by trusting women.”
In an accompanying press release, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards urged Americans “to ponder the true meaning of the Tebow family’s experience – one in which a woman was presented with medical and moral considerations and made a deeply personal decision in private without government interference.” “That is exactly what we want every woman to be able to do when she must make important and highly personal medical decisions,” said Richards.
The release also attacked Focus on the Family’s stance against the killing of the unborn as “far outside the mainstream of American life.”
“If Focus on the Family … has its way, millions of women would no longer be able to make important personal medical decisions for themselves and their families when it comes to abortion,” said Richards.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post threw more fire on the football-fueled abortion exchange: the Post this week published excerpts from a 1989 American Life League feature entitled “Champions for Life,” in which members of the 1987 Super Bowl champion team, the New York Giants, expressed in strong terms their opposition to the millions of lives lost through abortion since Roe v. Wade.
“At the end of the game, all the Giant players left the field champions,” says player Mark Bavaro in the video. “Now with the abortion death squads allowed to run rampant through our country, I wonder how many future champions will be killed before they see the light of day.”
African-American player George Martin remarked: “that infamous decision [Roe v. Wade] said that unborn babies have no rights, just as the shameful Dred Scott decision said that black people have no rights. I hope you will help right this terrible wrong.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Football Pros Give Support to Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020211.html