"Choose Life" Anti-Abortion License Plates Now Available; Fees Benefit Christian Political Groups

Anti-abortion license plates are for sale in Arizona, though you wouldn't know it from mainstream news sources. The contentious legal battle to allow the "Choose life" plates, which started after Governor Janet Napolitano rejected the plan, was covered adequately by news outlets. Now that people are actually buying the plates, coverage has been limited...

By Ray Stern

June 22, 2009

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Anti-abortion license plates are for sale in Arizona, though you wouldn't know it from mainstream news sources.

The contentious legal battle to allow the "Choose life" plates, which started after Governor Janet Napolitano rejected the plan, was covered adequately by news outlets. Now that people are actually buying the plates, coverage has been limited to the Catholic Sun and various right-wing blogs.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted reportedly has one on his car already. (Will Bishop Emeritus Thomas "I thought it was a dog" O'Brien get one?) Anyone can buy one of the plates by filling out an application with the plates' sponsoring organization, Arizona Life Coalition.

About half the states in the country now offer the plates, which first began to be issued 10 years ago in Florida.

As with other specialty plates in Arizona, $17 of the plates' $25 cost goes to benefit charities. But make no mistake: If you buy one of these plates, you'll be helping right-wing groups advance their causes -- and not just against abortion rights.

The organizations behind the plates are:

Arizona Catholic Conference
Arizona Right to Life
Center for Arizona Policy
Christian Family Care Agency
Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Greater Phoenix
Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Tucson
Maggie's Place

Pro-choice groups could have a plate of their own, if they wanted. All they have to do is follow the pro-life groups' lead.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.