Focus on your own damn family

Ack! Superbowl ad! ACK! Yes, yes, there's lots of feminist fury about the Focus on the Family ad that may or may not get air time during the Stupidbowl. There are also lots of anti-feminists calling us shrews, oversensitive, ridiculous, etc. Screaming censorship! So, the way I see it there are a number of issues here.

The gist for those of you who've been living outside of the femosphere - The ad - paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family - is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987 with a theme of "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim, who went on to win the 2007 Heisman Trophy while helping his Florida team to two BCS championships.

Censorship: Some people are screaming that feminists are trying to censor anti-abortion messages. Well, yes. But in the name of fair play. As Ms Zerbisias points out, "In recent years, there's been one Super Bowl ad controversy after another -- and all of them are ''resolved'' by CBS kowtowing to the (religious) right.
In 2004, the network did not see fit to air an ad by Move.on advocating against George W. Bush.
In 2006, it rejected a United Church of Jesus ad promoting its open arms policy towards gays and lesbians". So, if we're trying to censor these anti-choice jerks, it's tit for tat.

Myself, I'd rather that anyone be able to buy the air time, but that would still only work out to "anyone with the money" which would, in turn, mean, "anyone with considerable amounts of power".

Dangerous messages: Pam Tebow got lucky. She was given medical advice to abort, and she chose to ignore that advice, putting herself AND her baby at risk. That she lived and the baby lived is damn lucky. And maybe a miracle. It is remarkably dangerous and irresponsible for her to recommend other people do the same. But these people simply do not care about women. They have proven this time and time again.

Missed messages: How did Pam Tebow do it? How did she have four kids, and spend the last part of her pregnancy in hospital? Did she have AWESOME health insurance? No... she was in the Philippines where her medical needs were taken care of. Focus on the Family is AGAINST the health care bill. Again, they are proving that they don't have a second thought for women, or even for the babies, once they are born.

And who looked after her other kids? Obviously, she had a support system. What would I do in her situation? I have two kids at home who need constant care. I don't have family in town. The women at my church, while awesome, are not capable of looking after Crackle, his meltdowns and his extremely restricted diet. If I'm incapacitated, we're screwed. The Tebow's had more than just luck and God's blessing. They had resources. It's amazing how that sort of thing is just brushed under the rug. How we're all lumped into the same category. FoF likes to forget that women are people with stories, with lives, with responsibilities. They cannot fathom that in some cases, it's much more responsible to abort than it would be to carry the baby to term. If I got pregnant today, I don't know what I'd do. I've had my tubes tied, so it's pretty unlikely, but if the doctors botched it and I found myself pregnant? I dunno...

Good God, the utter lack of compassion that these people exhibit is utterly appalling. It horrifies me that they use the name of the man and God I follow to commit such sins against humanity. Because that's what women are, human. That fetuses are also human is not the point. If they want to reduce the number of abortions, they need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies - through comprehensive birth control education and funding. And they need to provide support to women for whom pregnancy is more than inconvenient, with health care, with child care, with psychological care. But this will not happen, because Focus on the Family's focus is on controlling women's bodies, and nothing more. It's infuriating.