Super Bowl commercials make us smile, they make us laugh, they make us cry, and, sometimes, they save lives.
Susan Wood is a young woman who was pressured by her boyfriend to have an abortion in 2010. But, thanks to a trip to her friend’s Super Bowl party and one particular commercial, she decided to choose life. Today, she has a beautiful four-year-old daughter named Avita Grace.
In a four-minute video featured online, Wood explains how a Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad saved her unborn child the night of Feb. 7, 2010. In the ad, football player Tim Tebow’s mother, Pam, explains how she rejected pressures to have an abortion and gave birth to her talented son. Wood was moved by Mrs. Tebow’s story:
“That was the night that I saw Tim Tebow’s commercial. That’s really what brought me to Focus on the Family. I went home and I watched the commercial again on YouTube. I explored the site, I watched video after video, then I emailed Focus on the Family…Then I got an email back and literally within reading that email it was almost instantly that decision, the things that she said just clicked. And I knew that all along that was what I wanted to do, that I needed to have the strength to do it. There was nothing after that, I knew I'm keeping the baby. I'm having her. ”
Today, Susan says being a single mom to Avita Grace is challenging and exhausting, but that's okay because she "would do anything for her." What a beautiful testimony.
Chilling reports have revealed that 64 percent of abortions are coerced. Whether it’s verbal and physical threats or blackmail, women with unplanned pregnancies have a host of pressures to endure – even from their own boyfriends and family members. Susan Wood and Pam Tebow showed true courage in overcoming these obstacles and choosing life. Mrs. Tebow called her son a “miracle baby” – no doubt Ms. Wood would say the same about her daughter.
It’s encouraging to know that Super Bowl commercials can be more than just Doritos and beer. One particular new ad from Pampers suggests that there will be even more joyful pro-life messages in between the tackles and touchdowns this Sunday. In the meantime, read more about Susan’s story and enjoy the ad that saved her precious little girl: