Women’s Rights Groups Missing Point Over Tebow Ad

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The Focus on the Family ad featuring Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow that will run during Super Bowl XLIV has created a whirlwind of controversy.

The Women’s Media Center and over 30 other liberal and women’s advocacy groups sent a letter to CBS, saying: “… we urge you to immediately cancel this ad and refuse any other advertisement promoting Focus on the Family’s agenda.”

Focus on the Family has said that 30-second spot will highlight Tebow and his mother Pam, who gave birth to him despite a recommendation from doctors that she have an abortion.

At the heart of this issue are the nation’s abortion rights laws and more specifically a woman’s right to choose, coming as a result of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

According to Wiki, the Supreme Court held “that a woman may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the “point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable’”.

“The Supreme Court defined viability as the potential “to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid,” adding that viability “is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.”

Aside from the legalities of the subject, all of the women’s advocacy groups seem to be engaging in hypocrisy in their efforts to block the advertisement from running.

Wasn’t it Tebow’s mother’s right to choose to have her child? I’m curious why so many groups that claim to support a woman’s right to choose wouldn’t lend their voice to someone like Pam Tebow who chose to give birth.

The reality of course is the hypocritical nature in which most special interest groups operate.

In the case of the Women’s Media Center and the other advocacy groups joining forces to oppose the ad, they are attempting to silence a voice that choose differently than they want.

Jehmu Greene is the president of the Women's Media Center

In other words, the Women’s Media Center wants women to have the right to choose, but only if that choice leads to an abortion.

If a woman like Pam Tebow chooses to give birth to a child that goes on to become a Heisman Trophy winner, that’s a message women’s advocacy groups apparently don’t want you to hear.

For the record, I’m tired of hearing the argument that only a woman has a right to choose. It took two to tango, so doesn’t the man involved have a right to choose as well?

Specifically in the case of Pam Tebow, she did exactly what women’s advocacy groups have supposedly been championing for nearly 40 years.

Mrs. Tebow chose to give birth, a right she freely availed herself of. Despite the advice of the physician to abort the pregnancy, she made a choice which was her’s and her husband to make.

If women’s advocacy groups really believe in a woman’s right to choose, they should support Mrs. Tebow’s choice and the right she had to make it.