And who, pray tell, is being ‘hateful’ here?

Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King understood “hate.” They not only lived through it, they overcame it in spectacular fashion. So we should take notice when Coretta said, “hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”

Which brings us to the raging controversy over an anti-abortion ad for Sunday’s Super Bowl, featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother Pam.

Pam, you may know, became seriously ill during a missionary trip to the Philippines in 1987 and was strongly advised by her doctors to abort her fifth child. She refused. The result? 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

Her story - and Tim’s life - are captured in the 30-second ad, sponsored by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, with the theme of “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.” The word “abortion” isn’t used.

Tebow, a deeply religious man, says, “I know some people won’t agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe....”

Apparently not. If ever the “pro-choice” tag was revealed for the non-sequitur that it is - i.e. they only believe in one “choice” not the right to choose - check the published reaction to ad from Kierra Johnson, executive director of Choice USA, who said, “This un- American hate doesn’t have a place in this all- American pastime.”

“Un-American hate?” Really?

To begin with, a comprehensive 2007 poll of Americans by the New York Times (hardly a bastion of conservative values) and CBS (ditto) showed American opinions on abortion have remained fairly constant since they began this poll in 1989, with just 34 percent agreeing that abortion should be available without restrictions.

The largest group, 41 percent, would allow abortions, but under much stricter laws than currently exist, while 23 percent oppose abortion, period. Apparently that makes 64 percent of Americans “un-American” and full of hate, according to Johnson.

In all categories, there was not much difference in the views of males and females. When it came to unfettered abortions, Democrats and Independents were both far more likely to say yes than Republicans. Among those opposed to all abortions, it was the opposite, although we note that even here, men and women were represented equally, putting the lie to the oftrepeated claims by pro-abortion groups that the prolife position is held chiefly by patriarchal bigots.

Among those who would allow abortions, but only under stricter limits, both Democrats and Independents outnumbered Republicans. Interesting.

All this is simply to show that, despite consistent claims from the abortion industry - and their myriad of friends in the media -there is nothing “un-American” or even “radical” about believing that abortion involves more than the rights of a woman to her own body. Nor are these views restricted, as the media loves to claim, to the much-maligned “religious right.,” Moral qualms over abortion is a pretty mainstream American view.

Which is why Johnson and her ilk are so upset about the anti-abortion commercials.

It’s easier to argue their case in the abstract, by dehumanizing the unborn, dismissing them as a collection of blood cells and flesh, deserving of the same rights say as a wart on the end of your big toe.

But when a real live human specimen stands up and says that had his mother aborted he wouldn’t be here to talk about it - even though it should be self-evident, but doesn’t seem to be - that makes it difficult to argue that only the mother’s rights are at play in this issue.

And who, pray tell, is being “hateful” here? The one who accuses the Tebows of “Un-American hate” for stating their case, or the one who spouts “hate” at the very notion that somebody would dare disagree with her? In a protest letter to CBS, the New York-based Women’s Media Center wrote, “By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots on the year to an antiequality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.”

While they were at it, it’s a wonder the WMC didn’t accuse Focus on the Family of being racist, along with all their other hateful charges - none of which, by the way, are sustained by the facts, other than the “antichoice” tag, which puts the two groups in the same category - one wants to end the “choice” of having abortions, or at least modify it, the other promotes only the “choice” of performing them, no strings attached.

What’s more, CBS isn’t “offering” the spot. They’re selling it - for about $2.5 million. They’d sell it to the WMC too.

Tebow’s critics are free to disagree. But, if they really think promoting respect for the unborn makes him a “hate-monger,” well, they’d better look in the mirror.

Had their own mothers held those views, that would be impossible now wouldn’t it?