Tebow or not Tebow

There’s a controversy about CBS’s decision to broadcast a pro-life commercial at the Super Bowl. It’s Tim Tebow, the Florida football star, and his mother, who was advised to have an abortion when she was pregnant with Tim. Several pro-choice organizations have called on CBS to reverse itself and not run the commercial.

Jack Marshall, in his Ethics Alarms blog analyzes the ethics of the opposing sides’ arguments. His article clarifies the arguments for me. It's worth reading.

Two cheers for Nancy Pelosi

Ethicists criticize politicians who put re-election and partisanship above doing the work the people elected them to do। Nancy Pelosi has been the legitimate target of such criticism. But we have to admire the way she got the job done over the weekend.

Pelosi is a fierce advocate of women’s right to choose, but she saw that getting the health care bill through the House of Representatives would require yielding to the right-to-lifers among House Dems। So she supported an amendment to block the use of federal subsidies for insurance that covers elective abortions.

That did the trick: pro-life Dems voted yea, and the first health care reform bill ever to pass the house was approved. Pelosi had counted well: the bill passes on a 220-215 vote—just two votes to spare.