Tuesday, February 02, 2010

"They aren't actually 'pro-choice' so much as they are pro-abortion": A Pro-Choice Columnist on the Pro-Choice Movement

Here's a welcome piece by Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins on the Tim Tebow pro-life Super Bowl ad. Make no mistake—it's a pro-free speech piece, not a pro-life piece. But Jenkins' honesty is fresh and respectable—possibly even courageous. Here's the gist of her perspective:
I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.

Tebow's 30-second ad hasn't even run yet, but it already has provoked "The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us" to reveal something important about themselves: They aren't actually "pro-choice" so much as they are pro-abortion.
I'm encouraged to see Jenkins make the obvious argument that the Tebows do more to care for women than the organization that claims to represent them:
Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikini selling beer is the right one.
Jenkins also exposes the fear in the pro-choice movement:
If the pro-choice stance is so precarious that a story about someone who chose to carry a risky pregnancy to term undermines it, then CBS is not the problem.
Maybe protests, placards and marches have their place. Seems to me, though, that this sort of message may find more of a foothold in American culture.

1 comment:

Tim Batchelor said...

Ben,

Thanks for posting this. I will have to take a look at that article. I saw this NY Magazine article on Al Mohler's blog.

(http://nymag.com/news/features/62379/)

I shared a portion of it with our teen group last week.