Virginia Abortion Advocates Attack Choose Life License Plates, Pregnancy Centers

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 25, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Virginia Abortion Advocates Attack Choose Life License Plates, Pregnancy Centers

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 25
, 2009

Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) — Motorists in Virginia have a way to express their pro-life views and support pregnancy centers providing alternatives to abortion at the same time. However, abortion advocates in the state don’t like that and they are taking steps to oppose the plates and cast aspersions on the centers.

Virginia drivers pay an additional $25 to get the yellow affinity plates and $15 of that fee, after the first 1,000 plates are sold, goes to Heartbeat International to provide women with tangible pregnancy help and options.

But, Planned Parenthood and NARAL-Virginia have set up an online petition to ask the state legislature to cut off the funding stream from the license plates to centers helping women.

Victoria Cobb, the head of the Family Foundation in Virginia, informed LifeNews.com of the pro-abortion move.

"So before the paint was dry on the first Choose Life license plates that were made available this year, with revenue going to pregnancy resource centers, our ‘choice’ advocates immediately sought to eliminate that choice," she said.

"This is part of an overarching national strategy to shut down pregnancy resource centers, ensuring that women have no place to go but abortion centers," she said.

"The fact that women now have a real choice of where to go when they face a crisis pregnancy must send shivers down the spine of the pro-abortion movement," Cobb continued. "Imagine women hearing that there are better alternatives to abortion in a warm, non-judgmental, and safe medical environment. That is Planned Parenthood and NARAL’s worst nightmare."

Cobb says pro-life groups need to do more to help communities understand the great benefits from pregnancy centers.

"Unfortunately, too few people understand the incredible role that pregnancy resource centers are playing in the lives of women across America, and many fall for the lies of the abortion movement," she says.
"The fact is, that they are far safer and more woman-friendly than any abortion center," she said.

Cobb said her group work fight at the state legislature to make sure lawmakers do not remove the funding to pregnancy centers from the sales of the Choose Life license plates.

Senator Ken Cuccinelli was the sponsor of the Choose Life plate bill that pro-abortion Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine reluctantly signed in March.

Although a state Senate committee defeated the bill, Cuccinelli didn’t give up and amended another license plate bill on the floor of the Senate several days later with the Choose Life plate on a 20-19 vote.

Kaine said he signed the Choose Life plate bill only because he thinks state residents should have the right to a specialty plate. The bill includes other license plates, which may have made it easier for Kaine to sign the legislation into law.

"I sign this legislation today in keeping with the Commonwealth’s longtime practice of approving specialty plates with all manner of political and social messages," he said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

Kaine also said he would sign a bill brought by abortion advocates for a pro-abortion plate.

"If Planned Parenthood … or another similar organization ever chooses to seek a specialty license plate in Virginia, I believe the constitution would require the state to approve that plate to protect against any viewpoint discrimination," he said.

Virginia became the twenty-third state to have a Choose Life license plate, where portions of the proceeds from the sale of the plates fund pregnancy centers and adoption programs.

Related web sites:
DMV Info on Choose Life plates –
https://www.dmv.state.va.us/exec/vehicle/splates/info.asp?idnm=CL
Family Foundation – https://www.familyfoundationblog.com

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.