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Football Player Tim Tebow on What Should Happen in Your Womb

CBS, which previously turned down ads by MoveOn.org, has agreed to run an anti-abortion ad starring Tebow and his mom.
January 23, 2010  |  
 
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How stupid would you feel if you aborted the next Tim Tebow, leaving the world with only tens of thousands of other football players?

That's the nightmare scenario presented in a Focus on the Family ad set to air during the Super Ball. The completely irreplacable Tebow (who's also left his mark on the world by promoting abstinence till marriage) will appear in the ad with his mom, who ignored the advice of doctors to have an abortion after contracting amebic dysentery, and wants to tell you all about that wise decision. (Several organizations are launching letter-writing campaigns to get CBS execs to change their minds about running the ad.)

Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner who does charity work at home and overseas (Last year Tebow spearheaded a fundraising effort for needy children in Florida and the Phillipines)  has always been vocal about his faith. The football star proclaims his religious beliefs in pretty much every interview he does, once stating, "For me, every day includes four things: God, family, academics and football, in that order." He inscribes his face with scripture for games.

But this is the first time Tebow is taking a blatantly conservative message to 90 million viewers.

The exact content of the ad is under wraps. All we know so far is the inspiring theme: "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." And that, according to James Dobson, founder of the right-wing evangelical organization, the ad comes at a time when "families need to be inspired." And that Focus on the Family probably shelled out 3 million (that's how much CBS is charging for 30 second spots), money gathered not from the coffers of the struggling organization, which has had to lay off hundreds of employees, but private individuals who channeled their money through Focus on the Family specifically to fund the  ad.

CBS has rejected issue advertising in the past. In 2004, the network refused to run ads by both PETA and MoveOn.org: the MoveOn ad made the wildly controversial point that Bush had increased the national deficit; PETA's involved scantily clad women. 

Also too edgy for CBS: the idea that Jesus espoused universal love. In 2004 the United Church of Christ submitted an ad showing a bouncer blocking a gay couple from entering a Church, with the tagline: Jesus Didn't Turn People away. Neither do we.  

Tana Ganeva is an AlterNet editor. Follow her on Twitter.
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