'Not Just a Clump of Cells': Tim Tebow Challenges Pro-Lifers to Value Every Life

Tebow urges the pro-life movement to match its convictions with real-world compassion.

The year was 1986, and an American missionary and father of four was preparing to preach to a crowd of locals in a remote Philippine village.

A year earlier, he and his family had followed a divine call to travel halfway across the world to share the Gospel with the island's natives. As the evangelist readied himself to speak, he felt that tug again and began to weep for the children being aborted worldwide.

"And God put it on his heart that he needed to have another baby," former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow recounted at the Florida Right to Life gala in Jacksonville, Florida, on Jan. 16.

The story was a highlight of Tebow’s keynote address. The SEC Network analyst revealed that soon after the missionary and his wife resolved to expand their family, doctors discovered what they believed to be "a mass of fetal tissue," or "a tumor," in her uterus.

That "tumor" turned out to be a baby boy. Still, concerned about complications from her prior illness, doctors urged the mother to abort. "They kept telling her over and over again, 'You need to have an abortion because if you don't, it will cost you your baby's life; it will cost you your life,'" Tebow said.

Choosing to trust God, the couple continued the pregnancy. They enlisted the help of an American-trained doctor to deliver the baby, and in August 1987, their faith was rewarded with a miracle.

Tebow said that as the mother gave birth, the doctor looked at her and her husband in disbelief. "He said, 'I have no idea how your baby is alive because the placenta's only a tiny bit still attached. I don't know how your baby has enough nutrients to survive. Ma'am, sir, it's the greatest miracle that I've ever seen in my entire life.'"

Then the doctor handed Tebow to his mother.