By James Tillman
Approximately 4% of those who support abortion were lead to "personally reconsider [their] opinion about abortion" after watching the pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, according to a new Barna study.
Approximately 92.6 million Americans watched the ad when it aired February 7, during what is normally the most-viewed broadcast in America each year. Because slightly less than half of repondents in the poll self-identified as pro-abortion, the data suggests that about 1.7 million pro-abortion viewers reconsidered their position after watching the spot.
Yet this was not the ad's only effect.
The ad, featuring a short message in which Pam speaks of how Tim almost failed to make it into the world, directs viewers to a longer video on the Focus on the Family website.
"Our [website] traffic jumped to 40 times its normal volume [during the game]," Focus on the Family spokeswoman Monica Schleicher said, according to the Denver Post. "In the hour during the pre-game [broadcast], when the other ad aired twice, our Web traffic was 20 times our normal volume."
In the powerful, ten-minute interview with Tim Tebow's parents on the Focus on the Family website, Pam and Bob Tebow describe how they had prayed for Tim to be born.
"We were very excited that I became pregnant with Timmy," Pam recounts, "and we went to see the doctor there in the town that we lived in; she said it wasn't a baby at all, he was a mass of fetal tissue, and that I needed to abort him immediately if I was going to save my life."
During the following very difficult pregnancy, Pam said that she thought she would lose Tim nearly daily; nevertheless, she continued to experience peace in resignation to God's will.
When Jim Daly asked what advice the Tebows would give to a young lady with an unplanned pregnancy, they were ready with an answer.
"I would say that baby's not a mistake, though it might seem that way to her," said Pam, "and that God will enable her to do the right thing and to give her the encouragement that she needs, but that there's also help for her."
"And girls have those options. They have a choice. And God really has his hand on the situation. There's so many people out there willing to help if they give them the chance."
Bob Tebow had a similarly simple message.
"The first thing I would say to you if you have a surprise pregnancy is: God loves you. God loves you, and he loves your baby," he said. "There are lots of people; they'll help you. Don't kill your baby."
The effect of the ad was multiplied by the piles of publicity pro-abortion groups generated by demanding that CBS refuse to show the ad, and complaining that the Super Bowl should not be a political event.
In a recent editorial, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly mentioned that "The criticism we've received from this ad has been curious."
He continued by suggesting a few "modest changes" that might save lives: instituting a consent or waiting period at abortion facilities, requiring doctors to give women the option to view an ultrasound prior to an abortion, requiring parental involvement before abortion, and encouraging adoption.
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