"Choose Life" License Plates in Virginia and Beyond

By William Wan

Since the state of Virginia debuted its new "Choose Life" specialty on July 1, it has received almost 600 applications. The plates --a bright yellow tag with the drawing of a boy and girl under the words "choose life" - is part of a movement by Christians and anti-abortion organizations to make anti-abortion license plates available in states across the country.

Virginia is the 24th state to offer the plates, approved by the state general assembly during its last session. The whole Choose-Life-license-plate movement started in Florida ten years ago under former Gov. Jeb Bush and has since been championed by a non-profit called "Choose Life, Inc." According to this Orlando Sentinel story, which examines the entire history of the movement in Florida, they're now up to 40,000 license plates down there.

In Virginia, the legislation was shepherded through by a local Choose Life branch. As the state DMV explains, the application fee is $25, and how it works is after 1,000 applications have been processed, $15 of the $25 will go to Heartbeat International, a Christian network of pregnancy centers. DMV spokeswoman Melanie Stokes says they've gotten 590 applications. (She notes Choose Life is just one of 225 specialty plates in DMV system.)

Not all states have approved the Choose Life plate , and legal battles in many states over it...this one for instance in Illinois.

By William Wan  |  July 14, 2009; 9:38 AM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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