The 2023 Pro-Life Super Bowl

I can’t pretend to be a football fan. I barely knew which teams were in the Super Bowl last night. I only tend to turn it on to catch the half-time show, wondering what it might say about our culture. I turned it on a little before halftime — in time to see the Pringles commercial that showed a sonogram photo of an unborn, developing baby, who was referred to by a grandfather talking to his teenage grandson:

The whole thing was obviously light-hearted — about getting your arm stuck in an empty Pringles container. But goodness, an image is powerful. And so are the words stating the relationship. This is a baby, not a clump of cells. And while I assume any pro-life message was unintentional, maybe the grandson saying that an unborn baby with a Pringles container in the womb “doesn’t even make sense” also poked a little fun at the fact that we pretend that a baby isn’t a baby in other contexts — such as when a dead baby is the goal in an abortion.

And then, there was the Rihanna baby bump. Yes, I know parts of the performance were raunchy. Yes, I know you probably didn’t want your children watching it. I even frequently use her song “Rude Boy” as an example of the poison young people drink in in our culture — leading them all too often to unintended pregnancies and abortion. But, at the same time, we cannot dismiss the power of images. Here is a near-household name who is pregnant — with a nine-month-old at home — and still doing a Super Bowl half-time show.

Rihanna said at a pre-Super Bowl press conference last week that: “When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world. You can do anything.”

So I couldn’t help but put aside all critiques last night, because the main optic reminded me of this video urging a pregnant woman that she can do motherhood, since she is already a mother anyway:

I know that’s not what Rihanna is saying. But we have to meet people somewhere to build a culture of life and civilization of love.

And I wasn’t alone among pro-life voices to observe these things last night: