OVERLAND PARK, Kansas, February 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – While speaking to a large gathering of pro-lifers, former Denver Broncos quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow said that saving the unborn “really does mean a lot more than winning the Super Bowl.”

Tebow was at the Kansans for Life annual Valentine’s Day banquet held at the Overland Park Convention Center, attended by nearly 1,200 people, according to a report by National Right to Life News.

The master of ceremonies, Lamar Hunt Jr., co-owner of the Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs, kicked off the event saying:

I do not think it is a cliché to say we are in a life and death battle for the truth and authentic dignity of the human person. We need your full attention. You need to drop what you’re doing and join us, and this can be in so many ways: prayer, assistance to those in need, emails, phone calls, in-person meetings. Get educated about what we’re fighting about here. Really listen in and tune in.

When Tebow took to the podium, he thanked Hunt for “having courage in the face of a lot of other people who don’t have it and for your willingness to be up here and support this organization.”

“One day, when you look back and people are talking about you and they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, what are you going to be known for?” asked Tebow. “Are you going to say Super Bowl, or we saved a lot of babies?”

Turning his attention to the large gathering, Tebow continued, “What you’re doing here matters. You’re fighting for life. You’re fighting for people that can’t fight for themselves.”

“And my question to you is: Are you willing to stand up in the face of persecution, in the face of adversity, in the face of criticism, when other people are going to say it’s not worth it, when other people won’t stand beside you? Maybe not everybody is going to be with you. Will you stand up for what’s right?” he concluded.

Fighting for the lives of the unborn is a deeply personal matter for the former NFL quarterback, who was nearly aborted, and would have been had his mom followed the doctor’s advice.

Tim’s mom, Pam Tebow, had been told by her doctor that if she did not abort her baby, she would likely die.

“You see, my mom 32 years ago had doctors tell her she needed to abort me because if she didn’t, it was going to cost her life. And they didn’t even believe that I was a baby,” said Tebow, adding, “They thought I was a tumor.”

From the beginning, it was a difficult pregnancy for Tim’s mom, who suffered profuse bleeding and cramping. Her doctor had determined that the baby in her womb was a just a “mass of fetal tissue” and suggested he was simply a “tumor,” and so should be aborted.

Tim’s parents rejected the doctor’s advice.

Tebow recounted that when he was born, “The doctor looked at my mom after 37 years of being a doctor and said, ‘This is the biggest miracle I’ve ever seen because I’m not sure how he’s alive.’ … I’m so grateful that my mom trusted God with my life and her life.”