On Friday, Louisiana joined a handful of states offering “Choose Life” license plates. Of course people are upset about it; any time you combine something even remotely related to religion with federal control, the old church versus state argument is revisited.
At first I thought it was asinine that people were so upset about these license plates. Maybe I just don’t care enough about the license plate in front of me and find it just as easy to ignore as the thousands of others sitting in traffic, but I’m going to have to say that after perusing the legal proceedings, I defend the opposing party.
I’m not going to spout off my personal or religious views about abortion or about government interfering with religion, because they’re irrelevant to my argument. But if there are going to be anti-abortion license plates available, there should be license plates available that promote a different angle as well. Abortion rights groups will never be able to raise money through license plates that advocate abortion — or any other federal assistance, for that matter. However, what about groups that counsel young women to explore and consider all of their options?
The complaints are more than just banal whining by a bunch of activists; they’re legitimate claims that the license plates violate inherent American ideals. The four points being brought to court are the following: the First Amendment rights of abortion rights groups are violated in the refusal of abortion rights license plates to counter the “Choose Life” ones; the law is discriminatory against groups that counsel women to deliberate every option (including abortion), who are not eligible for similar fund-raising tactics; by doing so, the government expresses a partiality toward religious views on abortion; and the law is “unconstitutionally vague” by not specifically delineating why pro-choice groups are denied the ability to execute analogous license plate programs.
Some things that aren’t really debatable; for example, license plates that advocate better education, or better health care for children, or similar universally upright causes wouldn’t cause such a commotion. Nobody had a problem when Louisiana introduced the pelican license plates. Nor do people object to Louisiana State University or Southern University license plates that dot traffic all over Baton Rouge.
Essentially, it’s a candle burning from both ends; although anti-abortion organizations are receiving profits from the plate sales, abortion-rights organizations are receiving just as much publicity and advertisement from the bedlam. Sometimes it’s pretty outrageous how much free advertisement organizations give to their opponent by doing things such as this. Then again, it’s just another way to stir it all up and get everyone thinking about it. And judging from the ridiculous commercial where the girls sit in ratty kitchens and on decrepit porches and rap about how tough it is being a “young mother,” these organizations are willing to try almost anything that can conceivably provoke their audience.
The problem is when the government affords one organization certain rights and privileges without granting those same rights and privileges to rival organizations.
So Louisiana is joining the ranks with Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma in offering official state anti abortion license plates. But I can’t honestly say I think selling these plates will be the end of the big debate; it’s going to rear its ugly face as long as anti-abortion and abortion-rights organizations fight to compete on level grounds with one another, and the government prevents them from doing so.