The Los Angeles Times has a snotty column by Timothy Rutten about the Tebow Super Bowl ad controversy which includes this paragraph:
Both mother and son are vocal opponents of abortion, though there’s a curious aspect to the story she’s told in numerous interviews. Pam has repeatedly said that all this happened in the Philippines, where she delivered Tim in 1987. But as a letter to CBS from the Center for Reproductive Rights notes, the Philippines criminalized abortion in 1870. Since 1930, its criminal code governing abortion makes no exception to save the life of the mother and requires prison time for doctors and women involved. It’s remarkable that Pam’s doctors were willing to give advice that put them at such risk.
According to LifeSiteNews, feminist lawyer Gloria Allred is considering legal action to prevent the commercial from airing or complaining after the Super Bowl if it does air because the story is “misleading” because abortion was, and continues to be, illegal. But pro-abortion feminists have long argued that abortions occur even where they are illicit. In 2005, the Guttmacher Institute said the abortion rate in the Philippines was about 25 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age per year from the early 1990s to mid 2000s, with a precisely reported 473,400 (illegal) abortions in 2000. It would seem that Pam Tebow’s story holds up. Unless the Guttmacher Institute is lying.
