Pro-Life Florida License Plates???

Renee Paulson | September 3, 2008 - 2:29 pm

Can anybody tell me how the Pro Life License plates in FL came about? I'm a bit frustrated with this issue. Why are there no pro-choice license plates and how can this be fixed? Obviously, I'm pro-choice, but I also believe in fair representation. I understand that this is a very sensitive subject, but if one organization is allowed government funds the opposing organization should receive the same. How can this be remedied? Does someone out there have any information for me on this subject? Has this already been brought to light and this is an ongoing arguement?

Glad you asked...

We are working to get a Pro-Choice license plate in the state of Florida that will provide funds to organizations that teach comprehensive sex education, provide women's health care and reproductive health choices. The organization is called United for Choice, Inc., our website is www.licensetochoose.org.
At this time we are still in fund-raising process and working toward obtaining our non-profit status, so there is certainly a lot going on. If you would like more info, feel free to email me at cicely at licensetochoose. org.

Thanks!

How can I help?

I am very interested in this matter. I've read a few articles and I've come to the conclusion that the Pro- Lifers are entitles to their beliefs and their license plates, as infuriating as I find it. My problem is that there are no Pro-Choice plates. How does an organization go about getting a license plate and how did the pro-lifers get theirs? The state is unjustingly siding with one side of a very heated religious and political arguement and the pro-choice side is not being represented. If the pro-lifers have their own plate the other side of the arguement needs to be represented too. A few articles I have read stated that we can't just get rid of the pro=life plates, it would be a violation of the 1st amendment and I agree, they are entitled to their point of view and expressing that point of view, but when they are being funded but the state and pro-choicers are not THAT IS WRONG. How can I help rectify this? I have several friends who have recently become very angry over this matter and we are revved up to fight this. Who should we contact, where should we go? I'm very serious about this matter so I would like to know where to start!? I tried your e-mail but for some reason it wouldn't go through. My e-mail is rnp3@students.uwf.edu. Thank you for the reply

More info from Slate

A Google search for "pro-life license plates" turned up a lot, including this Slate article.

An excerpt:

The "Choose Life" plates in Florida feature the words "Choose Life" in childlike crayon, along with a beaming boy and girl—presumably of the happily adopted variety—also rendered in the key of crayon. Most of states with "Choose Life" programs provide, as does Florida, that the proceeds of these sales go exclusively to organizations that counsel women with unwanted pregnancies to choose adoption. In fact, the legislation in most states expressly provides that any program offering referrals or even discussing the option of abortion is barred from funding.

When the first "Choose Life" legislation passed in Florida in 1998, then-Gov. Lawton Chiles vetoed it, stating that license plates were not necessarily the best forum for exploring the complex nuances of the abortion debate. But Gov. Jeb Bush signed the bill when he was elected in 1999, and the Louisiana legislature adopted similar legislation shortly thereafter. South Carolina followed in 2001. All have resulted in lawsuits, with the first two states' suits going to the Choose Lifers and the third going to the plaintiffs. So far.

In Florida, the courts have usually dismissed the suits, insisting that the plaintiffs (usually women's or pro choice organizations) didn't have "standing" to sue because they had never themselves attempted to get the opposite viewpoint onto any license plates. The Louisiana lawsuit went to the plaintiffs initially, because the district court felt that the plates discriminated in favor of just one viewpoint. This resulted in an injunction that was dissolved last March by the 5th Circuit court of appeals, who found that, as was the case in Florida, the plaintiffs had no standing to sue in the first place. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear that case this year.

They have them in Indiana as

They have them in Indiana as well.