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Real Answers™
dt29
Copyright: ©2010 Debbie Thurman
670 words

CHOOSING LIFE

By: Debbie Thurman

Just when we thought the abortion debate had taken a backseat to the economy and poor leadership in Washington, along come Pam Tebow and her Heisman Trophy-winning son, Tim — with some help from Focus on the Family — to celebrate Life in vivid personification, and the pro-life movement has a first-and-goal at the one-yard line.

Focus on the Family, absent its now-retired founding father James Dobson, has purchased 30 seconds of premium ad time on the Feb. 7 Super Bowl game broadcast, generally seen by, oh, about a gazillion people. It’s a leap of faith by an organization that has taken a recession hit in giving, along with every other non-profit, ministry-focused group in the nation.

Even the health-care overhaul debate, with its move to allow government funding for abortions, couldn’t harness our national energy like the controversy over CBS agreeing to air the Tebow/Focus on the Family ad has so far.

The ad is being kept under wraps, of course, until its moment to air. But it purportedly will show Pam and Tim Tebow discussing her decision to forego a recommended abortion while pregnant with Tim on a missionary assignment with her husband, Bob, in the Philippines in 1987. Before she learned she was pregnant, Pam had contracted amoebic dysentery. The high-powered antibiotics she needed were highly risky for the baby, and the pregnancy was touch and go. She and Bob had prayed for several years for another son: “If you will give us a son, we’ll name him ‘Timothy,’ and we’ll make him a preacher.”

Both prayers were answered. Tim Tebow is well known today, not only for his quarterbacking prowess with the Florida Gators, but also for his strong faith and work with underprivileged youth. His very life is a sermon.

Despite the ad taking a life-affirming rather than an abortion-attacking position, various women’s and abortion advocacy groups have been up in arms, calling it hateful, misleading and anti-choice (my favorite, since that term seeks to deny that life is a choice). 

Even high-profile, liberal, female attorneys have weighed in. Gloria Allred’s take is that the ad violates truth-in-advertising standards as abortions have been illegal in the Philippines since 1930. Yet, nearly half a million women obtain illegal abortions there every year. Susan Estrich claims the Tebow story does not apply to the majority of abortion cases because the Tebows “wanted” their baby — as if the wanting precluded the risks. Estrich only paints a more selfish picture of abortion, which is precisely why the numbers of pro-lifers have dramatically climbed in the past decade (from 36 to 51 percent at last count). 

To cap it all off, both The New York Times and The Washington Post have run editorials either defending the ad or knocking the hypocrisy of those opposed to it. If CBS stays its course, many millions will watch the ad and vote with their hearts.

When an expectant mother is shown an ultrasound view of her in-utero baby, its undeniable humanness causes her to choose life in nearly every case, even if that means giving the child up for adoption. Far from being “punished with a baby,” she has the opportunity to act out of compassion and courage and either choose a loving adoptive home for her child or accept responsibility for raising it. It can change her forever, and certainly such decisions have the power to change a nation that has too long disgraced itself by disposing of the most helpless and innocent among us with barely a prick of the conscience. 

While many in the “pro-choice” movement believe they are helping to stem the tide of poverty and suffering, the ease with which they dismiss the barbarism of abortion erases their good intentions.

We cannot play God. The Tim Tebow story is a living testament to what faith can produce.

“… I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live. …” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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