After three years of legal disputes, Louisiana residents now can join five other states in purchasing “Choose life” license plates.
The plates, which feature a brown pelican carrying a baby in a blanket, went on sale Nov. 1, three months after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit pro-choice opponents filed in 1999. The lawsuit prohibited the plates from being sold on grounds of “viewpoint discrimination.”
Gov. Mike Foster and the state Legislature approved a bill creating the specialty plates in June 1999, but a lawsuit claimed production of the specialty tags would establish a political position for the entire state, according to the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy Web site.
The “Choose life” tags display only one side of a controversial issue, said Maria Munoz, an English senior and member of Women Organizing Women.
“Abortion is a really touchy subject, and everyone has a different viewpoint on it,” Munoz said.
Louisiana — along with other states — should offer pro-choice license plates as well as the pro-life tags, she said.
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina also offer the “Choose life” plates, and 13 other states are considering legislation.
“We think the state was fully justified in approving the ‘Choose life’ license plates,” said Dean Johnson, a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee. “Residents could choose to buy them or not, just as they can choose whether to support abortions or not.”
The plates do not further one political stance over another, Johnson said.
Louisiana legislators may choose to introduce pro-choice license plates in the future, said Monica Scioneaux, a marketing junior and member of Rock for Life.
“They just approved the pro-life ones first because the option was brought to them,” Scioneaux said. “If the pro-choice plates were brought to [Legislature] three years ago, they probably would’ve had the same controversy.”
State laws prohibit sale of the plates from benefitting women seeking abortions or abortion clinics.
The proceeds go toward counsel for women considering adoption of their unborn children.