Missouri Choose Life License Plate Unveiled, Available for Purchase Statewide

Life News ^ | 5/2/08 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- After a long and successful legal battle, Missouri residents are now able to support adoption efforts with the purchase of a Choose Life license plate. Plate supporters unveiled the artwork for the plate in a capital reception surrounding by leaders of pro-life groups and state legislators.

In January, a federal district court judge ruled Missouri officials must let a proposal for Choose Life license plates move forward despite a rejection from a committee of lawmakers.

Choose Life of Missouri has been working on securing this life-affirming license play since 2005.

Using a 2004 law that allows lawmakers to block nonprofit groups seeking specialty license plates, two Missouri state senators halted the plates in February 2006.

The group filed suit in June 2006 and won legal victories at each key juncture. The Alliance Defense Fund represented the group and said Missouri officials never should have prevented its free speech rights and those of motorists.

“Pro-life organizations shouldn't be penalized for expressing their beliefs,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster said. “Unfortunately, that’s how Missouri officials unfairly discriminated when they denied Choose Life the right to exercise their free speech rights.”

The “Choose Life” license plate will help support pro-life pro-adoption efforts, pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes and adoption agencies in Missouri.

The group has set up a web site Missouri residents can use to purchase the plates.

Looking back on the battle, the law allowed any member of the Joint Committee on Transportation Oversight or any two state senators or five House members to stop a plate. Democratic Sens. Joan Bray and Rita Heard Days, both St. Louis abortion advocates, objected to the plates.

Senior U.S. District Judge Scott Wright eventually declared the law allowing the lawmakers to stop them unconstitutional saying there are no safeguards from the state discriminating against some groups of people, such as pro-life advocates.

Ultimately, the Choose Life plates across the nation have raised over $8.7 million and over 400,000 plates have been sold or renewed in the 17 state that currently have the plate available.

Related web sites:
Choose Life Missouri - http://www.chooselifemissouri.org
National Choose Life plate effort - http://www.choose-life.org

[wagglebee]

I hope everyone understands that those who oppose the plates also OPPOSE LIFE.

[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

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[wagglebee]

You need to order these!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Good end to the work week.

[missnry]

Life Ping!

[TheBattman]

I love that plate! I think it is much more attractive than the Arkansas Choose Life plate:

[qam1]

I hope everyone understands that those who oppose the plates also OPPOSE LIFE.

Get a grip

I oppose these plates and it has nothing to do with opposing life or any such nonsense. I would oppose any plate that promoted any issue no matter how near & dear to my heart it was.

It's just not the government's job to promote any issue. You want to tell the world you are pro-life or how you feel on any other issue, fine, by all means feel free, just do it by buying a bumper sticker.

If the pro-life side can get it's plates, what's to stop the anti-life side from getting theirs and do you really want to live in a state that has "Celebrate Roe v Wade" license plates?

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[wagglebee]

It's just not the government's job to promote any issue.

SELLING a license plate IS NOT promoting an issue.

do you really want to live in a state that has "Celebrate Roe v Wade" license plates?

It's a lot easier to spot the enemy that way.

[Balding_Eagle]

No, I’m sure you oppose life.

I’m also certain you receive a secret thrill when you think of all those little girls who were raped in that Texas compound.

[wardaddy]

If the pro-life side can get it's plates, what's to stop the anti-life side from getting theirs and do you really want to live in a state that has "Celebrate Roe v Wade" license plates?

They are entitled to have them if they can muster the political juice to get them according to whatever local statutes govern such request but here in Dixie the baby killers simply don't have that political power but if you look around you might notice that you see very few public pro-choice bumperstickers these days....folks are sorta not willing to be so public about like they might have been right after Roe, back before folks knew how catastrophic Roe would be.

This tag is on my new black F250 Crew Cab Diesel...proudly I might add: (I donated heavily to the political battle to get these)

I might add that in states like Mississippi and Alabama, the state governments are very very accomodating on these plates. Tennesse had a small roadblock of some powerful urban libs.