In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, there was no lack of controversy surrounding a pro-life ad featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. One of the most outspoken opponents of the ad was feminist lawyer Gloria Allred who wrote to CBS attempting to get the network to drop the ad.
Gloria Allred is no stranger to the subject of abortion, so it was not surprising that she wanted to kill this pro-life ad. Her letter to Leslie Moonves of CBS stated that the ad should be pulled because it was guilty of “misleading advertising.”
Allred, who had not seen the ad, charged that when Pam Tebow, while pregnant with Tim, was being advised by doctors in the Philippines to consider an abortion (she was on antibiotics for a pregnancy illness), it was illegal there to have one. In a monumental stretch, Allred reasoned that the ad should disclose this information; otherwise she said it was “misleading.”
What was really misleading was Allred’s duplicity. Several years ago, she represented Amber Frey in a case related to the death of Laci Peterson; Peterson’s husband, Scott, was convicted of murdering both her and the baby she was carrying, a boy they had named Connor. In an interview she gave on June 5, 2003 on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes,” Allred found it useful to her case to emphasize the humanness of Peterson’s baby: “And the fact that there are two individuals who are dead there, Laci and Connor, that has to be the most important consideration of everything.” For once, she was right.
Allred’s confession in 2003 undercuts her credibility—to say nothing of her ethical standing—to make this case against Tebow’s Super Bowl ad. She knows that Tim Tebow is alive today because his mother did not abort him, despite the advice from doctors. To top it off, she couldn’t even respectfully deal with this issue. Her snide remark, which was in the letter to Moonves, was classic. “As the story is reported,” she said, “Tim’s mother decides to take her pregnancy to term anyway and give birth to Tim. Apparently they have lived happily ever after since that time.” And apparently, Allred has no shame.
We asked our members to contact CBS and to let the network know of their support for the ad.
