Courts okay "Choose Life" license plates
Categories: Adoption, In the news, Alcohol & drugs
Wow. Who'da thunk that license plates would stir up so much trouble? Well, it turns out they can and they do. Me, I've got a Yosemite plate on our Land Rover -- who could possibly be opposed to one of the (if not the) most beautiful places on the planet? Well, the world of specialized license plates is not all granite and waterfalls. It's rife with controversy.It turns out that not everyone likes the idea of a government-issued license plate promoting an anti-abortion message. In Arizona, the License Plate Commission denied Arizona Life Coalition's request for a "Choose Life" license plate to be made available. The group appealed and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based right here in San Francisco, ruled that the license plate commission had indeed infringed upon the coalition's right to free speech, by not allowing the license plate. A similar scenario played out in Missouri recently as well.
There are those, however, who disagree with the rulings, saying that while individuals have every right to say their piece, the government should not be required to be the medium for their opinions. I kinda agree with that, actually. According to one writer, however, if a group wants a "Preserve Traditional Marriage" plate, would you also see a contrasting "Marriage is For Everyone" plate? Well, actually, yes. Both Hawaii and Montana offer pro-choice plates sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
The Choose Life plates are available in eighteen states, including Hawaii and Montana where they far outsell the pro-choice plates. They are also now available in Arizona and Missouri, thanks to the recent court cases. Personally, I don't think it's appropriate, but if they offer both sides of an argument, I'm not going to complain about it. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eva 1-30-2008 @ 2:10PM
As long as they "offer both sides" I guess that's okay, although I'm not sure black/white thinking is helping on these issues.
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Erika 1-30-2008 @ 2:14PM
Whatever happened to good old bumper stickers? :o) We have a "choose life" plate here in Virginia, it kind of freaked me out the first time I saw it.
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toni 1-30-2008 @ 2:22PM
at least both sides are being offerred. but i'm going to hate to explain to my son what it means when he sees it and asks!
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SAM 1-30-2008 @ 2:25PM
They should leave it to bumper stickers. States should not get into this even if they offer both.
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SAM 1-30-2008 @ 2:26PM
They should leave it to bumper stickers. States should not get into this even if they offer both.
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Emily 1-30-2008 @ 3:59PM
State governments really can't be offering a plate for every single issue that is out there, so it seems a little ridiculous. And although I'm about as pro-choice as they come, I don't seen anything controversial about the "choose life" plate - it's making the anti-abortion people admit that it's a choice!
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Soleil 1-31-2008 @ 7:01AM
So true!!! Good point Emily!
Carrie, Medical Students for Choice
Sandyone 1-31-2008 @ 7:20AM
Aahhh, but does it make the pro-abortion people admit that it's a life?
Amy 1-30-2008 @ 4:35PM
Who are these folks who think that these license plates matter? Are there millions of pregnant women driving around, maybe even on their way to the clinic for the abortion, who are saying, "You know, I was going to do it, but then I saw this license plate..."??
No, of course not. And the idea that a complex issue can be boiled down to a pithy phrase on the back of someone's car, and that said pithy phrase is really going to make one iota of difference in any woman's real, complex decision to terminate a pregnancy. Well, I find it insulting. I really do. I mean, you don't see a bunch of bumper stickers telling men what to do with their bodies, right? What about the biblical "don't spill your seed upon the ground" thing? Maybe we all need bumper stickers to say that.
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com
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kelly.leahy 1-30-2008 @ 6:03PM
I too think that political issues are best left to bumper stickers. Besides, I really have to fight the urge to hit cars with "Choose Life" plates ... but that's just me.
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SKL 1-30-2008 @ 7:39PM
While I don't see a need for this to be a license plate design, I see no harm in it.
It might not make a woman on her way to an abortion clinic change her mind, but it would show people that the pro-life position is a widely-held, mainstream position, not some right-wing extreme. Many information sources (basically the mass media) tend to show the more liberal side of this discussion, giving many folks the impression that pro-"choice" is the predominant view, which is definitely not the case. A visible statement such as this can be used by pro-lifers to help balance that distorted view.
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