# Anti-abortion group's TV Ads **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562 "2012-01-15T03:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/41 "2012-01-17T00:14:17Z")
I didn’t see the FOTF ad during the football game, but it sounds far, far preferable to the nonstop John 3:16 crap that we used to get from Rollen Stewart (the [“Rainbow Man”](http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/12/john-316-sign-lifestyle-sports-rainbow-man.html) who held up “John 3:16” signs for the cameras at countless baseball games and major sporting events during the 1980s)\*. He’s now doing three life prison terms arising out of an incident where he held a Hyatt maid hostage and SWAT had to be called in. Doubtful that Tebow will flame out so spectacularly, but you never know. \*it’s thought that Christian groups paid his way to be a pest at these events. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/42 "2012-01-17T04:11:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, I’ll stick by my “subtext” comment since John 3:16 is Tebow’s favorite passage, and Tebow is also famous for his anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl. John 3:16 is the favorite Bible passage of _most_ people who express any preference for any particular Bible passage, so this hardly constitutes a link to Tebow. And I’ve watched the Superbowl for the past decade at least and don’t recall ever seeing an anti-abortion ad during it, so it seems a stretch to say that Tebow’s famous for that, either. > [@](#): > > Do you think you invented the concept of discussing abortion on the Internet? If you think seriously about this for three seconds it becomes clear that the self-proclaimed anti-abortion people are blocking everything that _actually would reduce the number of abortions_ in favor of things that punish women. There are certainly some people who claim to be anti-abortion but who don’t do anything to actually reduce abortions. And it’s quite possible that for some of those people, their underlying reason really is that they want to oppress women. And I don’t know the exact numbers, so I suppose I can’t even rule out the possibility that that’s a majority of the people who claim to be anti-abortion. But to say that that’s the _only_ reason _anyone_ would ever oppose abortion is both intellectually dishonest and insulting. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/43 "2012-01-19T16:54:43Z")
Heck, just caught an ad the other day, sponsored by some New York group (which strikes me as oddly premature, since the New York primary isn’t until April, and by then picking a candidate will be with 99.99% certainty moot, and it’s nearly a year to the election itself). The gist was all the “missing people” prevented by abortion, showing a bunch of children at play and some of them vanishing, edging up toward adults disappearing, presumably those that would have been born in 1974 if not for _Roe_. One of the final images is a bridge and groom happily leaving a church when the bride disappears. Oddly, she is not replaced by a different woman and the groom simply carries on, as though the abortion of his destined bride led to him having a compulsion to run alone though churches dressed in a tuxedo. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/44 "2012-01-19T17:44:13Z")
I don’t see that add as being anti-abortion per se. I see it as primarily a feel good ad for all those Christian who tuned in to watch god’s quarterback, with the hope that after seeing cute brainwashed kids, they would get a positive feeling about FOTF and so open their hearts and more importantly their wallets to FOTF’s mission. There aslo may have been a bit of Jack Chick style naivete in which they hope that by just hearing John 3:16, some heathen is going to see the light and come to Christ. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/45 "2012-01-19T19:46:32Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, just caught an ad the other day, sponsored by some New York group (which strikes me as oddly premature, since the New York primary isn’t until April, and by then picking a candidate will be with 99.99% certainty moot, and it’s nearly a year to the election itself). The gist was all the “missing people” prevented by abortion, showing a bunch of children at play and some of them vanishing, edging up toward adults disappearing, presumably those that would have been born in 1974 if not for _Roe_. One of the final images is a bridge and groom happily leaving a church when the bride disappears. Oddly, she is not replaced by a different woman and the groom simply carries on, as though the abortion of his destined bride led to him having a compulsion to run alone though churches dressed in a tuxedo. Wouldn’t it be hilarious to make a pro-choice ad that had, like, a woman working late nights to support herself and her son, and the kid disappears and she finds herself a doctor? Or, a person getting mugged, and the mugger disappears. Or, maybe an older woman raising the kid her daughter left her with, and the kid fades away as the the woman finds herself on a cruise ship? Or a couple fighting, as the kid they married young for at a shotgun wedding looks on, and the kid disappears and the couple finds themselves with other spouses, and children, both of them in happy families? Or a young girl giving birth at prom and drowning the baby in the toilet, but NO! the baby disappears and the girl is just having fun at prom. What Abortion Can Do For You!! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/46 "2012-01-19T19:58:00Z")
I’m kinda curious what would happen if all the people prevented by abortion were actually around. Wouldn’t that make unemployment worse? Or maybe since wealthier women get more abortions, fewer “job creators” were created. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/47 "2012-01-19T20:55:00Z")
The “missing people” argument is one of the dumbest ones from the anti-abortion crowd. Lots of things prevent people from being born. Miscarriages, infertility, birth control, even that old crowd-pleaser, voluntary abstinence. Are these also the equivalent of murder, or bad in any way? There’s so little logic to these arguments, it’s almost as if the true motivation of the anti-abortion crowd is something they’d prefer not to articulate… ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/48 "2012-01-19T20:59:03Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m kinda curious what would happen if all the people prevented by abortion were actually around. You would probably have more people of a liberal persuasion. > [@](#): > > Wouldn’t that make unemployment worse? No. > [@](#): > > Or maybe since wealthier women get more abortions, fewer “job creators” were created. They don’t, though they are more likely to have an abortion if they become pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/49 "2012-01-19T21:10:52Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > You would probably have more people of a liberal persuasion. \*Relative to their political/social opposites. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/50 "2012-01-19T21:13:15Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > You would probably have more people of a liberal persuasion. If you believe that’s true, why are you opposed to it? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/51 "2012-01-19T21:17:46Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m kinda curious what would happen if all the people prevented by abortion were actually around. There would be lots and lots of unwanted, neglected children, and screwed up adults who used to be those children. And the same people who fight against abortion will fight tooth and nail against any attempt to provide for those unwanted children and their families. That’s what happens in places where abortion is successfully suppressed. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/52 "2012-01-19T21:19:46Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > If you believe that’s true, why are you opposed to it? Because I don’t believe that people I might and probably will disagree with at some point in the future should be killed off because of it. You probably find that a novel idea, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/53 "2012-01-19T21:27:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, just caught an ad the other day, sponsored by some New York group (which strikes me as oddly premature, since the New York primary isn’t until April, and by then picking a candidate will be with 99.99% certainty moot, and it’s nearly a year to the election itself). The gist was all the “missing people” prevented by abortion, showing a bunch of children at play and some of them vanishing, edging up toward adults disappearing, presumably those that would have been born in 1974 if not for _Roe_. One of the final images is a bridge and groom happily leaving a church when the bride disappears. Oddly, she is not replaced by a different woman and the groom simply carries on, as though the abortion of his destined bride led to him having a compulsion to run alone though churches dressed in a tuxedo. Or when his bride vanishes, he could find himself marrying a man. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/54 "2012-01-19T21:27:30Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m kinda curious what would happen if all the people prevented by abortion were actually around. Wouldn’t that make unemployment worse? Or maybe since wealthier women get more abortions, fewer “job creators” were created. Well, going by your usual pro-life propaganda, every last one of these robbed angels would have been a cross between Mozart, Einstein and a white Michael Jordan. So obviously we’d all be in the thrall of the Master Race by now (albeit a Master Race with Tourette’s). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/55 "2012-01-19T21:34:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, just caught an ad the other day, sponsored by some New York group (which strikes me as oddly premature, since the New York primary isn’t until April, and by then picking a candidate will be with 99.99% certainty moot, and it’s nearly a year to the election itself). The gist was all the “missing people” prevented by abortion, showing a bunch of children at play and some of them vanishing, edging up toward adults disappearing, presumably those that would have been born in 1974 if not for _Roe_. One of the final images is a bridge and groom happily leaving a church when the bride disappears. Oddly, she is not replaced by a different woman and the groom simply carries on, as though the abortion of his destined bride led to him having a compulsion to run alone though churches dressed in a tuxedo. You sure it was anti-abortion and not anti-rapture? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/56 "2012-01-19T21:39:44Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Because I don’t believe that people I might and probably will disagree with at some point in the future should be killed off because of it. You probably find that a novel idea, though. Well, assuming your hypothesis is correct, it’s moot - if _Roe_ had been rejected in 1973, leading to more liberals in American society, they would have tried again eventually, maybe in the mid to late 1990s, and I assume all the liberal excesses you oppose would have hit like a tidal wave. Smoking outlawed. Capital punishment outlawed. Capitalism… outlawed. So keeping abortion banned might have bought you an extra 25 years or so of 1973-style conservatism, at a cost of eventual conservative extinction. Your personal remark, I’ll ignore. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/57 "2012-01-19T22:01:31Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, assuming your hypothesis is correct, it’s moot - if _Roe_ had been rejected in 1973, leading to more liberals in American society, they would have tried again eventually, maybe in the mid to late 1990s, and I assume all the liberal excesses you oppose would have hit like a tidal wave. Smoking outlawed. Capital punishment outlawed. Capitalism… outlawed. So keeping abortion banned might have bought you an extra 25 years or so of 1973-style conservatism, at a cost of eventual conservative extinction. Only if you believe “relative to” means “more than”. > [@](#): > > Your personal remark, I’ll ignore. You didn’t do a very good job of it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/58 "2012-01-19T22:25:55Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Only if you believe “relative to” means “more than”. Meh, if you’re going to add qualifiers and weaken down your statement, there’s nothing to discuss. I suggest you take a minute or two, form an actual hypothesis of what would have happened in the U.S. if _Roe_ had been rejected in 1973, and stand by it. > [@](#): > > You didn’t do a very good job of it. If you say so. But you’re not disputing that it was a personal remark, I see. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/59 "2012-01-19T22:56:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > John 3:16 is the favorite Bible passage of _most_ people who express any preference for any particular Bible passage, so this hardly constitutes a link to Tebow. And I’ve watched the Superbowl for the past decade at least and don’t recall ever seeing an anti-abortion ad during it, so it seems a stretch to say that Tebow’s famous for that, either. [Link to pit thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=548241&highlight=tebow) Tebow did make a very controversial Super Bowl ad for Focus on the Family ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562/60 "2012-01-19T23:06:38Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Meh, if you’re going to add qualifiers and weaken down your statement, there’s nothing to discuss. I suggest you take a minute or two, form an actual hypothesis of what would have happened in the U.S. if _Roe_ had been rejected in 1973, and stand by it. Considering I said that _before_ you tried responding to anything I wrote, it’s not exactly “adding qualifiers and weakening my statement” or whatever else you want to say. > [@](#): > > If you say so. But you’re not disputing that it was a personal remark, I see. Well, it was directed at you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-abortion-groups-tv-ads/609562.md?page=4)