6/24/2010
"Choose Life" license plates now available in MA
After a seven-year campaign, Massachusetts residents can now support crisis pregnancy centers and express their pro-life views on their license plates. The plates feature an illustration of a woman cradling an infant and cost drivers $90 every two years. The proceeds from the plates will go to organizations that encourage women with unwanted pregnancies to consider options other than abortion, such as adoption.
Any registered charitable organization can submit a special design to the RMV, but must also post a $100,000 bond to protect the state from financial loss, and obtain applications and fees from at least 1,500 drivers who want the new plates. The state will return the bond if more than 3,000 of the specialty plates are sold within two years.
Massachusetts joins with about two-dozen other states in offering "Choose Life" plates, which were first available in Florida a decade ago. Jim Finnegan, an Illinois Family Institute board member, tried to get a "Choose Life" plate here in the Prairie State, but the Secretary of State, Jesse White fought it in court. It was appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied in October 2009, allowing the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Choose Life plates to stand, as handed down in November 2008.
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