Michigan state Senators moved forward with a bill Thursday to create specialty pro-life license plates in the state.
The “Choose Life” license plates would be available for $35, with some of the proceeds going to support babies and moms in Michigan, CBS News in Detroit reports. The bill passed a state Senate committee on Thursday, and now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, the lead sponsor of state Senate Bill 163, said the license plates will promote a positive, life-saving message.
“… the proceeds would go towards a special Choose Life fund, that would support life affirming services such as the services that you would find at a pregnancy resource center,” Colbeck said. “They take care of mothers facing unplanned pregnancy, provide for daily needs.”
He said some of the funds also would go to suicide prevention services.
“This is not something that’s hateful, going off and providing mothers with the resources that they needed. It’s a very positive message and it’s something that I hope everyone would get behind,” he added.
Michigan abortion activists are lobbying against the legislation.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Right to Life of Michigan, which supports the bill, said Planned Parenthood opposes the bill because it will allow drivers to choose to help fund pro-life pregnancy centers; at the same time, the abortion chain is demanding that taxpayers be forced to continue giving it money.
The pro-life group described what happened during a recent committee hearing:
Bill sponsor Sen. Patrick Colbeck gave a moving testimony about raising funds to support women in crisis. This was followed by two opposing testimonies from the American Association of University Women (Michigan Chapter) and Planned Parenthood. Right to Life of Michigan provided the final testimony in support of the bill.
Testimonies from the two groups supporting abortion were quite absurd. In an apparent attack on adoption, prolife pregnancy centers were referred to as “baby-finding centers” placed near college campuses to allow infertile wealthy white people to recruit and adopt white babies from a “better genetic pool of white college women.” In real life these pregnancy centers rely heavily on donations and volunteers to provide free help to women in need, many of whom are non-white.
Planned Parenthood’s first line of testimony accused Right to Life of Michigan of “standing in the way of reducing abortions in Michigan.” Yeah, you read that right.
“Choose Life” plates are available in 29 states, according to the organization that promotes the effort. The Nebraska legislature is considering similar pro-life license plates this spring.
The “Choose Life” organization reports the license plates have raised millions of dollars to help pregnant and parenting families and adoptions. In the Midwest, Indiana raised $650,000, and Ohio raised more than $500,000 through the specialty plates. Both states have more than 25,000 vehicles with “Choose Life” plates, according to the organization.
In 2016, North Carolina won a long court battle when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that its “Choose Life” license plates, approved by the legislature in 2011, are constitutional.
The battle over the North Carolina pro-life plates went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, LifeNews reported. The high court ordered the 4th Circuit Court, which previously struck down the law, to reconsider the case in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in another license plate case, Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.
