The plates will feature a drawing of a young boy and a young girl in a two-inch box on the left side, with the words "choose life" along the bottom, where regular plates now have the motto of "Grand Canyon State."Aside from allowing motorists to publicize their views, the arrangement also has financial benefits. Out of the additional $25 the state charges for special plates, $17 goes to the sponsoring organization.
"Proceeds from these licenses will support basically providing alternatives to abortion and promoting life," Herrod said, predicting her organization will be able to sell thousands of the plates.
The proceeds will go to the Arizona Life Coalition, which means they will be distributed among member organizations such as Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Tucson and Phoenix as well as Herrod's own Center for Arizona Policy. Despite the assertion by the AZ Life Coalition that disseminating "accurate information" is required by member organizations, rest assured that the money that will now be funneled to them with the full cooperation and facilitation of the state will help promote the ongoing message that abortion always causes psychological harm to the woman, imperils her future fertility and the health of any future children she might birth, as well as supporting Christian evangelizing of panicked women who happen to find the Crisis Pregnancy Center first in the phone book.
My only solace is that the wording on the plate, "Choose Life," implies--thoroughly inadvertently, I'm sure--that choice should still be the major component of the process, rather than compulsory full-term birth.
The natural response would be to push for a plate reading "Preserve Reproductive Choice," but the state commission created to approve special plates is ready to commit institutional suicide rather than risk being asked to approved the next special-interest plate that comes down the pike--this approval took a federal appeals court judge to force them to wield the rubber stamp--so this may be the last special plate Arizona gets. And that makes Cathi Herrod very happy.
Herrod said the legal fight to get the plates was worth it. "The 'choose life' message affirms the value of every human life," she said. Herrod said that message will "absolutely have a positive impact" on those who see the plates.
You're right about that, Cathi. Seeing one of those plates will absolutely make me want to impact the driver's face with my fist. How awesome would it be if the first one I see is on your car? Answer? It would be totes awesome, at least for one of us.
3 comments:
Separation of what and what? I can't remember, darn. How the hell does this happen? Especially after North Carolina's high court just struck down a recent attempt to furnish their citizens with the 'I Believe' license plates?
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=10191&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1241
I suspect it is because the "choose life" message is not explicitly religious, although I have to wonder why the explicitly religious nature of many of the organizations that stand to benefit from the plate's sale does not disqualify it. I think that was the state commission's initial argument, and I'm not sure why it was summarily ignored by the court of appeals, nor why that court seemed to focus on the scope of the commission's powers rather than the conflict posed by the state-sanctioned religion they objected to in the first place.
If I believed in Hell (which I don't), Cathi Herrod would most certainly be one of Satan's helpers. She is evil personified.
Post a Comment