One of the big advertising controversies in this year’s Super Bowl is the Pro-Life ad sponsored by Focus on the Family and starring Tim Tebow’s mom.  The early reviews from the faithful are that it will leave critics speechless.  Perhaps, but not for the reason they think.

I respect Tebow’s faith.  I respect his right to evangelize at every opportunity.  I’m tempted to take issue with CBS’s decision to air such a controversial opinion piece during the big game, but mostly because they have censored other ads.  If they are going to open the ads up to political opinion, then they should be agnostic toward the opinions expressed.

But my real issue is with the message.  No, not the Pro-Life message.  While I’m solidly Pro-Choice, I believe the Pro-Life drive to outlaw abortion is a valid alternate political position.  My issue is more with the notion put forth by Tebow’s mom that her decision not to have an abortion is what gave us this all-star quaterback.

Granted, if she had opted for abortion, Tim Tebow wouldn’t be playing football today.  But it’s also true that if any of the other 40 million or so sperm from his dad had made it to the egg first, he wouldn’t be here today either.  Had he crashed his bike and screwed up his knee as a kid, he wouldn’t be playing football today.  The reality is that there are countless things that happened or didn’t in Tebow’s life to bring him to where he is today.  And there were countless other children and potential children who didn’t make the journey.

Now if you believe that God has a plan for each of us and that he guides all those little things in our lives, then it seems you must believe that God guided Mom to not abort the baby. Or conversely, if she did, that must have been God’s will too.  Yes, I know, free choice and Satan.  But free choice doesn’t stop at abortion.

You have a choice whether or not to pick up the toy on the stairs on your way up, and not doing so may cause you to fall on the way down.  If those are all free choices, then the number of them that have to line up to produce a Tim Tebow level athlete are astronomical.  So much so that any of us winding up being who we are is more happenstance than plan.

In the end, if you accept that all things work out according to God’s plan, then outlawing abortion is superfluous.  Conversely, if life is all free choice, then abortion is such a small fraction of the choices that would need to be controlled to assure a good outcome that outlawing it to make sure top athletes are all born is like trying to reduce obesity by outlawing Twinkies.  So either way, abortion shouldn’t be a big issue.  Certainly not one worthy of precious Super Bowl ad time.

There are valid reasons to want abortion outlawed.  This isn’t one of them.