Jimmy Akin points to a Washington Post story:
The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider appeals from abortion rights groups wanting to block states from issuing car license plates bearing the message "Choose Life."
...Justices said they would not look at tag laws in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Abortion opponents contend they have a free-speech right to broadcast their own views on their car tags. Proposals to offer car owners an alternative "Choose Choice" plate failed in both state Legislatures.
A federal judge had found that Tennessee's tag wrongly promoted only one side of the abortion debate, but the decision was overturned by an appeals court.
... Last year, the high court let stand a lower court ruling that said South Carolina's license plates, which bear the slogan "Choose Life," violate the First Amendment because abortion rights supporters weren't given a similar forum to express their beliefs.
Jimmy's take on it is worth reading. I'm not really fired up over "special" license plates --- a license plate is supposed to identify a vehicle and confirm that it's registered with the state, something that is probably hindered by the lack of uniformity. Also the proliferation of these special plates has all but ruined License Plate Bingo on car trips.
What I find interesting about this is the notion (shared by some courts) that, if "abortion opponents" can have a special plate with their own message, "Choose Life," then "abortion rights supporters" should have the right to a plate that sends their own message, according to a sort of equal-access principle.
The reason I think it's interesting is that this argument assumes several points that the abortion-rights movement might be wiser to deny, at least for the sake of appearances.
First, it assumes what pro-life people have been insisting all along. Abortion is a black-and-white issue. There are only two sides: "abortion opponents" and "abortion rights supporters." There is no gray area. There is no room for I'm personally opposed to abortion but I think it is good that it is legal. Nor is there room for I support legal abortion but I think we should encourage people not to have abortions. In other words, there are exactly two positions: "anti-abortion," exemplified by people who would exhort other to "choose life," and the opposite, i.e., "pro-abortion."
This leads us to the second point, because one would naturally ask, "So what would the 'other side' exhort?" The message on the plates is "Choose Life." Arguing that abortion-rights supporters, as the "other side," have a right to display their own message, implies an assumption: that they don't want to display "Choose Life." So what do they want to display? "Don't Choose Life?" "Choose something other than life?" The article mentions "Choose Choice." What does that mean? This argument isn't exactly good PR for abortion-rights supporters. It makes them look like they're opposed to the choice of life, i.e., not pro-choice, just pro-abortion. Hardly the image they want to project.
Third point. Tennessee's court (later overturned) agreed with the abortion-rights supporters that the Tennessee tag "promoted only one side of the abortion debate." OK, so... which side does "Choose Life" promote? If "Choose Life" is one side of the abortion debate, then what exactly is the abortion debate about? You thought that it was "keep abortion legal/make abortion illegal." But wait! This plate doesn't say "Make abortion illegal." It says "Choose Life." If that's one side, we're talking about a different debate. So now, all of a sudden, the abortion-rights supporters are saying, "The abortion debate isn't about legality, it's really about encouraging women to freely choose abortions vs. discouraging women from freely choosing abortions."
It's pretty obvious that the slogan "Choose Life" is not an "anti-choice" slogan. It's neutral, if not positive, on the subject of "choice." It's positive on the subject of "life." Theoretically, an abortion-rights supporter should be able to carry that particular banner without any contradiction. (Except that, practically speaking, "I hope you choose life" apparently functions as code for "I don't support legal abortion." Which should tell us something.)
Of course, these plates do not exist solely "to show the car owner's opposition to abortion," as the WaPo article states. They are also fundraising plates. In Florida, for example, the money goes to organizations that support women in continuing their crisis pregnancies, including nonprofit adoption agencies and maternity homes. Perhaps the abortion-rights supporters want the right to a plate that says "Choose Life" but that raises funds for some other kind of organization. Hmm.
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