Are Abortion Activists Going to Boycott Doritos?

Last night’s big Super Bowl win by our Denver Broncos continues to dominate conversation in the hallways here at Focus on the Family. After all, it was a plot almost too implausible for Hollywood. With his career on life support just three months ago, future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning rises off the bench on a cold January Sunday afternoon and rallies his team to a win in the final regular season game. Two playoff victories follow. And then, in a final act of what is likely his final game, Manning and the Broncos win Super Bowl 50 before an audience of over 100 million viewers.

Sometimes (with my apologies to Carolina Panther fans) happy endings do come true.

Yet, one group that was clearly not happy last night was NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly National Abortion Rights Action League).

After Doritos ran an advertisement of a preborn baby depicted in an ultrasound exam reaching for a chip, NARAL tweeted this heartless response:

#NotBuyingIt – that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50

— NARAL (@NARAL) February 8, 2016

Here is the ad:

Of course, Doritos is simply trying to sell bags of chips. I don’t believe they were trying to even subtly deliver a pro-life message. But you know what? This is the beauty and power of ultrasound technology. Once you see a child in utero, it’s impossible to deny that the child is a living human being.

It’s this wonderful reality that has led our own Option Ultrasound program to save an estimated 358,000 babies since its inception. Babies inside the womb may not be reaching for chips, but they’re reaching out for our attention to their plight.

NARAL’s reaction may not shock us (after all, they have consistently championed the unfettered killing of millions of innocent babies), but it should still sadden and grieve our souls. If you ask me, this type of response highlights the unsustainable position of the pro-abortion lobby. They’re aware that any reference to life inside the womb undermines their position that a baby isn’t really a baby until it’s born.

And so this is why they react as they do.

But wait. There’s more.

After the NFL ran several ads celebrating generations of “Super Bowl Babies” (children conceived by fans of winning teams), NARAL angrily tweeted again: (this tweet has since been deleted)

More Super Bowl babies?!?! Get thee an IUD! #MediaWeLike
7:31 PM – 7 Feb 2016

Here’s the ad:

I wish I could ask NARAL: Of all those beautiful smiling faces shown, which ones should not have been born?

You might recall that Focus created a bit of its own firestorm six years ago when we ran a Super Bowl commercial affirming the beauty of life and celebrating Pam Tebow’s decision to carry her son Tim to full-term.

Critics were apoplectic. And that’s even before they saw our ad!

Ironically, these were critics whose own mothers chose life for them. Just like the critics at NARAL.

I like football. But I love the fact that in the midst of what is ultimately an inconsequential game, consequential issues of our culture are inevitably and even accidentally raised.

Doritos bills their chips as being “dangerously bold.” I’ll take that as a friendly reminder to be “dangerously bold” in promoting the incredible beauty and value of human life, and I hope you will, too.