A Super Bowl commercial featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow is stirring national debate.

Conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is sponsoring the 30-second spot featuring the college football star and his mother recounting her pregnancy in 1987.

“They will share a personal story centered on the theme of ‘Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life,’” Jim Daly, the group's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, Pam Tebow rejected doctors’ recommendation to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim. As the Florida Gators quarterback, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner helped his team to two BCS championships.

"An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year - an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center, the Associated Press reported.

The network will ensure that any issue-oriented ad is "appropriate for air," said Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman.

The Women's Media Center  and the National Organization for Women  are among the critics urging the network to scrap the ad while supporters range from Americans United for Life, Coral Ridge Ministries and the Susan B. Anthony List, a network representing pro-life women in politics. Last week, the group launched www.blockhardfortebow.com where they said 50,000 people posted comments endorsing the advertisement.

A top 10 list of reasons  for why the ad has to go posted on the Women’s Media Center Web site included:  Don’t need Monday morning quarterbacking on my reproductive health decisions. I know someone who had an abortion – and I stand by her choice. We couldn’t even deal with Janet Jackson’s nipple, how are we going to manage abortion?"

“All the national networks, including CBS, have policies that rule out the broadcast of certain types of contentious advocacy ads. In 2004, CBS cited such a policy in rejecting an ad by the liberal-leaning United Church of Christ highlighting the UCC's welcoming stance toward gays and others who might feel shunned by more conservative churches,” according to an AP story.

"But CBS, which broadcasts the game every three years in rotation with Fox and NBC, changed its policy in 2008 to accept ads that sell opinions rather than products. Since then, CBS has run issue ads on subjects like health care reform and the environment," wrote New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott in an article Monday. "This is the first Super Bowl for CBS with the new policy in effect. The old policy was in effect when CBS rejected a request from a liberal organization, MoveOn.org, that sought to buy a spot during the 2004 Super Bowl to protest the policies of President George W. Bush."

Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are  - Washington Post sport columnist Sally Jenkins' take on the controversy

A handful of "very generous and committed friends" donated money to air the ad, Daly said. No money from the ministry's general fund was used, he said.

Is the Super Bowl, one of the most widely watched events in television history, the best or appropriate place for advocacy ads?