As of 2004-MAR-8, the following states have approved their sale. South
Carolina has a law authorizing sale of these plates, but it has been declared
unconstitutional:
Alabama: Specialty plates have been approved for production. Plates can be purchased for a premium of
$50. The Alabama Pro-Life Coalition web site includes instructions on how to apply for a plate.
1
The Iowa Family Policy Center reported on 2003-APR-4 that $59,000 had been raised in the state from the sale of these
license plates. 2
Arkansas: Governor Mike Huckabee signed a bill into law on
2003-MAR-10 authorizing a "Choose Life" license plate. Motorists who
choose to purchase this plate will pay an additional $35.00. Proceeds will
be distributed among agencies that counsel women to consider adoption. No
money will go to agencies that either provide abortions or give referrals
to such agencies. Huckabee said: ''We believed it was a great
opportunity to assist in the adoption process and at the same time make a
statement about the sanctity of life.'' Rita Sklar, the director of
the ACLU in Arkansas said that the issue is not abortion but the state
taking sides on a political issue and directing money in their preferred
direction. She said: ''You have the government setting up a scheme
whereby it is supporting a particular political point of view. That is
improper under the First Amendment.'' 3
Florida:
Enabling legislation was passed in 1998 for the sale
and distribution of these plates. However, Governor Chiles vetoed it.
The bill
was resubmitted in 1999, was passed, and was signed into law by Governor Bush
(R-FL) on 1999-JUN-10. Florida became the first jurisdiction in the world
to offer "Choose Life" plates. The additional cost
is $22, of which $20 is forwarded to pro-life groups. Florida counties are
responsible for the distribution of funds; however, some have delegated this
task to religious groups.
In 2003-MAR, the 11th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled that the Women's Emergency Network could
not sue the state of Florida to have the "Choose Life" plates
discontinued. The lawsuit was dismissed on procedural grounds.
However, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that
the dismissal was improper. Barry Silver, an attorney representing
NOW’s South Palm Beach chapter told the Sun-Sentinel: "The
big issue for me and my clients is that our country is faced with
terrorism from abroad, but in Florida, we’ve seen homegrown
terrorism specifically by religious fanatics against abortion
clinics. Their slogan of choice is 'Choose Life.' The last thing we
want to do is put the state's imprimatur on a slogan that is used to
sow violence and domestic terrorism." 21
The program had raised over $1,513,614 by
2003-APR. 4
Charlotte County in Florida spent a
year trying to find agencies to whom they could dispense the $18,000
collected from the specialty plates. They started with a large list.
But most agencies will refer women to abortion clinics under some
circumstances. In late 2003-NOV, they finally found two that met the
law's requirements: a Baptist Pregnancy Testing Center and a
Roman Catholic Pregnancy Crisis Careline. 19
Hawaii: Plates are available. Their advertising and distribution
appears to be a very low-key program. 5 As of 2003-APR,
only $4,900 had been raised. A friend of one of the OCRT staff members
visited Hawaii in 2004-DEC for a month-long vacation. She looked for
these plates on passing vehicles, but found none.
Louisiana: This state makes over 150 different special interest plates
available, including 35 styles for various types of veterans, 39 for
university and college graduates, etc. Legislation for "Choose
Life" plates was passed in 1999. An amendment to another bill
which would have made a pro-choice plate available to the public was
rejected by the legislature. Distribution of the
plates was delayed because of several legal challenges at the state and
federal court levels. On 2002-OCT-16, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear
an appeal from a lower court, thus allowing the law to be implemented. Sales
of the plates started on 2002-NOV-1. Distribution of funds was performed
by three Fundamentalist Christian para-church organizations which formed the "Choose
Life Council." 6,7 As of 2003-APR, $19,500 had
been raised.
On 2003-JUL-8, U.S. District judge Stanwood Duval blocked the state from issuing
all current specialty license plates, including the Choose Life
tags. His ruling was based on the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, because the state provides
anti-abortion plates but does not offer plates for opposing views. Judge
Duval wrote: "If the state built a convention hall for speech and then
only allowed people to speak with whom they agreed with their message, the
state's actions would be in contravention of the First Amendment," Duval
wrote. "There is no significant difference in the case before the court."
According to Attorney General Richard Leyoub, the state will appeal the
decision. Steven Johnston, spokesman for Gov. Mike Foster, said: "It
seems like a weird decision to take away the free speech rights of
everybody else who has a specialty plate." William Rittenberg, an
attorney for the plaintiffs, said that specialty plates are not actually
banned. It is just the mechanism by which the state authorizes them which
has been declared unconstitutional. He said the state follow the precedent
that many other states do and issue specialty plates to be issued whenever
a certain number of people request them. 17
Maryland: The state adopted a regulation in 1998 that allow
non-profit groups with at least 25 members to apply for a specialty
license plate. Choose Life of Maryland, Inc. applied for and were
granted "Choose Life" license plates. Production started in the
summer of 2003. Presumably a pro-choice group could apply for and obtain
"Keep Abortion Legal" or "Consider Adoption" plates. 20
Mississippi: The state legislature passed enabling legislation
during 2002. Governor Ronnie Musgrove signed the bill into law on 2002-APR.
The extra fee is $30. By 2003-APR, $53,640 had been raised.
Ohio: Governor Bob Taft signed a bill on 2005-FEB-15 which
will allow Ohioans to buy "Choose Life" license plates,
starting in May. The
plates say "Ohio, Birthplace of Aviation" at the top, and "Choose
life" at the bottom. At the left is a drawing of two children
with the caption: "Adoption builds a family." Carrie Davis of the
Ohio ACLU said: "Not a single court in the country has said the
license plates have constitutional muster... the precedent at this point
says they can't do it," she said. "There's a very real likelihood the
ACLU will sue." She said that Ohio would be engaging in "viewpoint
discrimination" by allowing only one side of a debate to be heard.
She continued: "When the state creates a specialty license plate that
has a political message, the state has created a limited public forum.
Once they open up the forum, it has to be open to everybody."
Twenty dollars from the sale of each plate will go into a special
Choose Life Fund which will be distributed to private, non-profit
groups that support adoption. Agencies which mention abortion as an
option during counseling or which refer clients to abortion providers on
request will not be eligible for funding.
23
The American Civil Liberties Union launched a lawsuit
in Cleveland federal court on 2005-APR-27 to block sale of the plates.
24
Oklahoma: A law enabling production and sale of the plates was
signed into law by Governor Frank Keating during 2002-APR, and went into
effect on 2002-NOV-1. Plates are available at a premium of $25. Twenty dollars
will go to the Choose LIfe Assistance Program Revolving Fund which will
be distributed to agencies which neither counsel or make referrals "for
abortion, do not charge for their services, and help women in crisis
pregnancies who choose adoption." The web site includes an application
form to purchase plates. 8 By 2003-APR, $2,040 had been
raised. On 2004-MAR-7, the Oklahoma Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice (ORC) Education Fund, Inc. "filed a lawsuit in
U.S. District Court with six Oklahoma motorists challenging the
constitutionality of the state's 'Choose Life' license plates. ORC
charges that the distribution of funds raised by the sale of the plates
discriminates against pregnancy counseling services that discuss or
provide abortions and violates ORC’s rights to freedom of speech and
equal protection of the law." Reverend Linda Morgan Clark, ORC executive
director. said: "By allowing anti-abortion organizations but not
pro-family planning organizations to receive state monies, the Oklahoma
Legislature is trampling on the most basic first amendment protections.
ORC asks no more than that it and similarly-situated organizations be
treated equally and have their own viewpoints respected." 18
South Carolina: "Choose Life"
plates were approved in 2001. However, Senior US District Judge
William Bertelsman ruled that they violated the First Amendment. The
Associated Press reported that Peter Murphy, a spokesperson for
Planned Parenthood said: "It is wrong for the government to
provide a forum for one group and discriminate by viewpoint. The only
way to address this may be to eliminate the forum." 21
The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, that court let
the lower-court ruling stand. 25
Tennessee: The state legislature approved "Choose Life"
plates in 2003. Motorists pay an extra $35 of which some is routed to
New Life Resources, a pro-life agency. However the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued the state because they have given pro-life
advocates a state forum, while denying the same treatment to the
pro-choice movement. Both sides presented their arguments on 2004-MAR-11
in federal court. State attorney Jim Creecy, speaking on
behalf of the state government, told U.S.
District Judge Todd Campbell that abortion rights groups haven't
done enough to petition for their own plate.
22 The federal court agreed with the ACLU. New Life
Resources appealed. On 2006-MAR-17, the appeals court ruled for the
pro-life group, stating that: "Although this exercise of government
one-sidedness with respect to a contentious political issue may be
ill-advised, we are unable to conclude the Tennessee statute contravenes
the First Amendment." According to the Dominion
Post inMorgantown WV, the
appeals court:
"...also noted that the First
Amendment does not prohibit the government from using private
volunteers to put out its message - - even if it is controversial or
politically divisive..... The issue is, should the state be in the
business of endorsing a government message through seemingly private
speech? Specialty license plate programs were not created to promote
government messages, but to facilitate private speech. This premise
requires the government be viewpoint neutral. Even the governor of
Tennessee registered his disapproval of this measure by letting it
become law without his signature, and the state did not appeal the
ruling that outlawed the plates." 25
As of 2003-MAR-3, legislative activity is underway in many states. On
2002-APR, the Center for Reproductive Rights listed fifteen such states (CA, FL,
IA, IL, KS, KY, MI, MN, MS, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, and WV). 9
Some sources claim that 30 or 40 states are considering legislation.
Some state activity is described below:
Georgia: House Bill 1281 was introduced in 1998-JAN to authorize
manufacture and distribution of Choose Life plates, if 1,000 applications were
received from motorists. The bill was never approved. Similar bills were introduced in 2003: HB 254 and HB
286. Both were referred to the House Committee on Children and Youth.
Illinois: House bill HB 10 has been introduced and has been assigned to
a committee. Senate bill SB 1502 was introduced in the Illinois senate, and
has also been referred to a committee. It would prohibit funding any organization
which is "involved or associated
with any abortion activities, including counseling for or referrals to
abortion clinics, providing medical 10 abortion-related procedures, or
pro-abortion advertising." "Pro-abortion" is a
conservative Christian term for "pro-choice."10
Iowa: The Iowa Family Policy Center, a Fundamentalist Christian
pro-life group, has 314 individuals signed up for their proposed "choose
life" plates as of 2003-APR-4. They need to have 500 signed up before the
Department of Transport would be able to produce the plates. They also
need to be able to ask a state government department to sponsor bill HF
139 which would make the plates available at a premium of $35.00.
Kansas: In 2002-FEB, a bill to authorize the sale of plates
passed 21 to 19 in the Senate. In 2002-APR it passed 64 to 59 in the
House. Governor Bill Graves vetoed the bill in 2002-APR. He said that
vehicle tags should not be used as moving billboards for editorial
comment. Motorists would have paid the standard $40 fee for specialty
license plates plus an additional $25 to $100 to Kansans for Life, a
pro-life group. 11
Michigan: Senate Bill SB 112 was introduced on 2003-JAN-29. The
plates would cost an extra $25, of which $20 would go to the "Choose Life
fund." A similar bill passed the state House in 2002, but died in the
Senate. 12
New Hampshire: State Rep. Dan Itse
(R-Fremont) is sponsoring a bill to allow plates to be sold for an extra
$25 fee. No proceeds would be allowed to go to any agency that offers
abortion, abortion counseling, or abortion referrals.
Itse said: that some lawmakers will oppose the
bill: "those who are against it because they are pro-abortion, those
who are against it because they don't believe there should be any
specialty plates, and those who are against it because their specialty
plates didn't get approved." 13
Texas: A bill to authorize license plates was debated by the Texas'
House State Affairs Committee on 2003-APR-7.
Virginia: Bill HB 1406 which would authorize Choose Life
plates is before Governor Mark Warner. It passed the House by a vote of 57
to 37, and the Senate by 25 to 14. 14 On 2003-FEB-27, he
said that legislators "have gone too far" by
turning the special license plate program into a political forum. He said:
"I have a real concern about our license plates becoming
state-sanctioned political statements." The American Civil
Liberties Union has indicated that it will sue if the governor signs
the bill into law. "This is not about reproductive freedom but about free
speech," ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis wrote in a press
release: "The legislature cannot issue a license plate advocating one
viewpoint on reproductive freedom without giving the other viewpoint the
same opportunity." 15 In a poll of their web site's
visitors, HamptonRoads.com found that:
42% would prefer that the issue be dropped.
31% supported the Choose Life plate.
23% wanted both Choose Life and a pro-choice plate.
4% prefer a Support Adoption plate. (N = 4299) 16
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"Get a Choose Life license plate..." The Alabama Pro-Life
Coalition, at: http://www.aplcef.org/
"Choose Life license plates," Iowa Family
Policy Center newsletter, 2003-APR-4.
Kelly Wiese, "Arkansas Gov. Huckabee signs
'Choose Life' plate into law," Associated Press, 2003-MAR-10, at:
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/
"ACLU Challenges Law Authorizing 'Choose Life' Plates. License Plate
Sales Due To Begin Next Month," Associated Press, 2005-APR-27, at:
http://www.newsnet5.com/
"We can't help but get the message: Federal court's OK of ?Choose
Life' plates in Tennesse...," Dominion Post, Morgantown WV, 2006-MAR-19,
at:
http://www.romingerlegal.com/
