![\"NFL\/SUPERBOWL\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/files\/2010\/02\/tebow.jpg\" "\\"NFL\/SUPERBOWL\\"")
<\/p>\nMuch of the hype around this year’s Super Bowl pro football championship game focused on an ad by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family that featured college football superstar Tim Tebow and his mother Pam.<\/p>\n
Several abortion rights and women’s groups had complained in advance about the reported content of the ad, which they said would have a strong anti-abortion rights message.\u00a0\u00a0Reports suggested that the ad would focus on Pam Tebow’s\u00a0decision to carry Tim to term despite a recommendation from her doctors that she have an abortion. The Tebow family is deeply evangelical and he was born in the Philippines where his parents were doing missionary work.<\/p>\n
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Several groups that oppose abortion rights came out in strong support of the ad. None of this is surpring given the highly polarizing nature of the issue in America.<\/p>\n
The ad, which you can view below, is subtle, with Pam Tebow speaking of Tim as her “miracle baby.”\u00a0The polarizing A-word\u00a0is not mentioned, nor\u00a0the term “pro life,” \u00a0but it directed viewers to a Focus on the Family\u00a0link <\/a>where\u00a0Tebow’s mother does talk of her decision to carry him to term despite a doctor’s warning that doing so could endanger her life. In it her husband Bob talked of “weeping over the loss of millions of babies in America that were never given a chance<\/em>.”<\/p>\n What do you think of the hype around the ad? Was it overblown or could the link on the Focus on the Family web site\u00a0\u00a0unduly influence women whose lives are seriously at risk because of their pregnancy? And even if you support abortion rights, don’t your opponents have the right to air their views?<\/p>\n