Virginia Legislature OKs License Plates, State Budget for Planned Parenthood

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 15, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Virginia Legislature OKs License Plates, State Budget for Planned Parenthood

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 15
, 2010

Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) — The Virginia legislature closed up shop for the year, but didn’t do so before giving a bonanza to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. It approved pro-abortion license plates and allowed the abortion business to still receive state taxpayer funding — both problems pro-life Gov. Bob McDonnell may be able to fix.

Despite efforts in the House of Delegates to not allow Planned Parenthood to benefit financially from sales of a license plate, a conference committee rewarded funding to them.

In addition, the General Assembly sent McDonnell a budget that does not prohibit taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and does not include prohibitions on taxpayer funding of failed embryonic stem cell research and abortions for low-income state residents.

"All in all, a good weekend for the nation’s billion-dollar abortion behemoth," Family Foundation president Victoria Cobb complained.

Cobb says some legislators were intimidated by threats from the ACLU to take the state legislature to court if it failed to approve a pro-abortion plate. The ACLU argues that is discrimination because pro-life advocates already have a Choose Life plate.

While courts have said there can’t be viewpoint discrimination, Cobb maintains they have not said that the funding must go to an abortion business. She argued the conferees should have kept with the bill the House approved that sent the money to a state program that provides legitimate help for pregnant women other than abortion.

"Unfortunately, once the Planned Parenthood plate was attached to legislation that included several other license plates, it was going to pass," she said.

Yesterday, the General Assembly passed its FY 2011-2012 state budget with the pro-abortion provisions but Cobb says the "battle isn’t over."

"These bills now await action by the Governor. Over the next several days we will be putting together a comprehensive action plan for how you can make sure that your voice is heard – and heard loudly – during the veto process concerning the continued taxpayer funding of unethical activities by Richmond," she said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Hawaii was the first state to have a "Respect Choice" decal for plates in 2003 but the Times says there is so little interest the state may consider scrapping the decal.

Montana and Pennsylvania have pro-abortion license plates but just 22 people out of millions of residents of Pennsylvania have purchased one sponsored by Planned Parenthood.

Those figures compare poorly with the 520,000 Choose Life plates sold nationwide since 2002 that have raised an estimated $11 million for pregnancy centers and adoption agencies.

Unable to put a halt to the Choose Life license plates in dozens of states, abortion advocates are putting their own plate together hoping to reap the same financial windfall that pregnancy centers and adoption agencies have.

Choose Life plates are available in Montana, Arizona, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Related web sites:
Virginia Family Foundation – https://www.familyfoundationblog.com

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