Anti-Choice License Plate Update
By I wrote recently about states who (with the support, natch, of inexplicable NARAL endorsee Joe Lieberman) allow people to buy anti-choice license plates, with the proceeds going to nearly worthless (and intentionally obstructionist) “crisis pregnancy centers,” but do not offer the same option to pro-choice groups. (In Tennessee, supporters of treason in defense of slavery can have their symbolic license plate, but advocates of a woman’s reproductive freedom cannot.) The Supreme Court, unfortunately, has declined to hear the case, so the bad 6CA opinion upholding the discriminatory plates program will stand for the time being (thanks to reader L. Chadderdon.) The Alternet article also has some interesting stuff about the maneuvering of anti-choice legislators:
According to a Law.com article, Sen. Gloria Butler, D-Ga., sponsored an amendment for a “pro-family, pro-choice” license plate in the Georgia Senate, but dropped it when Republican senators proposed an alternate amendment that would channel funds from the pro-choice license plate to adoption agencies instead of Planned Parenthood, as Butler wanted. In fact, those same senators specifically prevented any group that provided abortions from receiving any license plate revenue. Apparently they missed the point that a license plate for choice should aid organizations that actually advocate choice.
Republican South Carolina Sen. Mike Fair came up with what he evidently saw as a solution to the debate. In 2005 he introduced a bill to the South Carolina general assembly that would allow for a “Choose Death” license plate. (Yes, he was serious). Of course, the proceeds wouldn’t go to nonprofit organizations advocating abortion as an option — the funds would go to the Department of Mental Health, where they would be “used for post-abortion trauma counseling for females who have chosen to have abortions.”
To be clear, these are the legislators that pro-choice centrists believe we can safely trust to protect reproductive freedom if Roe is overturned. Right.