UPDATED ACTION LINKS: Coalition of Women's Groups Calls for Action on CBS Advertisement
by Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief, RH Reality Check
January 26, 2010 - 3:06pm (Print)
A coalition of women's groups is calling on CBS to immediately pull an anti-choice advertisement sponsored by Focus on the Family now set to air during Super Bowl XLIV. Members of the coalition have sent a letter to CBS protesting the ad, launched a media outreach campaign, and are encouraging supporters to join their efforts through the use of numerous online advocacy strategies (links provided below).
The ad, which features Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, is, according to Focus on the Family, intended to "celebrate life and celebrate families."
Yes...a certain kind of family and a certain kind of life...that of the Christian fundamentalist. Focus on the Family is anti-choice (against contraception, against comprehensive sex education, and against a woman's right to choose to end an unintended pregnancy), and against marriage equality, among other things. It is expected that the ad for the Super Bowl will advocate these positions, whether implicitly or explicitly. It appears that Focus on the Family is also gambling $2.5 million in the hopes the ad will drive donors to its website to replenish its rapidly dwindling coffers.
Tim Tebow is well-known for his Christian fundamentalist religious fervor, most-often displayed for football audiences via the biblical passages he wears in his eye black and by his frequent public discussions on the same. Pam Tebow made the decision not to terminate her pregnancy and to assume the risks involved in continuing it when, on a mission to the Philippines while pregnant with Tim and with a serious infection, she was advised by her physician to consider doing so.
Pro-choice and women's rights groups object to the ad for a range of reasons, not least of which is the sudden reversal by CBS--which has rejected numerous ads by progressive organizations--of its own stated rules banning "advocacy" ads.
"CBS has a well-documented history of prohibiting advocacy ads it deems controversial, rejecting ads from organizations such as PETA, MoveOn.org, United Church of Christ, and even ones that carry only an “implicit” endorsement for a side in a public debate," states a press statement jointly released by the coalition.
Last year, NBC made the prudent decision to not air anti-choice messages during the Super Bowl. CBS executives have indicated in the past that they would not air Super Bowl ads where “substantial elements of the community (are) in opposition to one another.”
Moreover, notes the release, "Focus on the Family is an organization well-known for opposing the equality of Americans based on gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and reproductive freedom."
This ad uses one story to subtly dictate morality to the American public, and encourages women to disregard medical advice, potentially putting their lives at risk. Abortion is a controversial issue and anti-abortion vitriol has resulted in escalated violence against reproductive health service providers and their patients.
“An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year – an event designed to bring Americans together regardless of background, faith, ideology or political affiliation,” says Jehmu Greene, President of the Women’s Media Center.
The ad, notes the coalition press release, "goes against the approximately 70 percent majority American view that reproductive decisions should be left up to a woman and her physician; against the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that such decisions are protected by a constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy; and against the health needs of the 1 in 3 American women who will need an abortion at sometime in her life."
A letter signed by members of the coalition and sent to CBS executives, included these and other points.
"As united organizations dedicated to reproductive rights, tolerance, and social justice," the letter states, "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 waged war on non-traditional families, tried its hand at race baiting during the 2008 election, and is now attempting to use the Super Bowl to further ramp up the vitriolic rhetoric surrounding reproductive rights. By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will alienate viewers and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers. The decision to air this ad would be ethically, economically and politically disastrous for CBS. The content of this ad endangers women’s health, uses sports to divide rather than to unite, and promotes an organization that opposes the equality of Americans based on gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and reproductive freedom. Focus on the Family’s ad is surrealistic in its argument that a woman who chooses not to have a child may be depriving the Super Bowl of a football player. It uses one family’s story to dictate morality to the American public, and encourages young women to disregard medical advice, putting their lives at risk.
Though women comprise only 9 percent of CBS’s board, the letter notes, "they are a key constituency for the CBS network and 40 percent of Super Bowl viewers."
Signatories to the letter and press release as of this writing included: Abortion Access Project, ACCESS/Women’s Health Rights Coalition, Women, Action & the Media, Advocates for Youth, Alternet, By Any Media Necessary, California Council of Churches IMPACT, CAMI project, Choice USA, Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP)/Hampshire College, Equality Now, Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), Feminist Press, HollabackNYC, Ibis Reproductive Health, Law Students for Reproductive Justice, MAMAPALOOZA!, Media Equity Collaborative, Medical Students for Choice!, Ms. Foundation, New Prospect Family Praise and Worship Center, National Organization for Women (NOW), NOW-NYC, OpEd Project, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, Religious Institute, RH Reality Check, Sisterhood is Global, Inc, The White House Project, Third Wave Foundation, Women, Action & the Media (WAM!), Women In Media & News, and Women’s Information Network (WIN).If you contradict your policy and air this ad, you will be throwing these women under the bus. American values of privacy and freedom should be respected, not undermined during the Super Bowl. The last thing Americans need is CBS or its advertisers telling us how and when to have a family. CBS must take action now, by cancelling the airing of Focus on the Family’s ad.
Those interested can take action through the following petition campaigns:
Change.org and United Church of Christ
We will continue to update these actions here.
Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson
