Anti-abortion license plates unveiled for S.C. cars

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ South Carolina license plates that read “CHOOSE LIFE S.C.“ were unveiled Wednesday, four years after a court doomed a similar anti-abortion tag, and in North Carolina a “Choose Life” tag won approval from a state legislative committee.

The South Carolina plate features the state color, indigo blue, and evokes the state flag with a palmetto serving as the “I’‘ in “LIFE,“ with a crescent to the side.

“This is a great day in South Carolina,“ said Rep. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville, who sponsored the original law allowing the plates that was challenged in court. “As you travel throughout the country, you are telling the country South Carolina is very serious about the pro-life issue.“

The South Carolina tags will be available this fall.

The $35-per-plate fee — collected in addition to normal tag fees — will go to the Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, which has 22 centers statewide that offer services to pregnant women and new mothers, including ultrasounds, adoption referrals, parenting classes and diapers, in an effort to reduce abortions.

Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said anti-abortion groups wanted to make the tags affordable so families could put them on all their cars.

Pro-choice officials say the money should instead go to state-regulated clinics, such as county health departments.

“Our concern is that the funds are going to clinics that provide biased counseling to women who are pregnant,“ said Melissa Reed, vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, based in Raleigh, N.C., which offers abortions in South Carolina.

South Carolina will become the 19th state with a Choose Life tag. Florida, which overcame three lawsuits to become the first to offer them in 2003, has raised $5.7 million for adoption services through sales of more than 284,000 plates, said Russ Amerling, spokesman for Florida-based Choose Life Inc., which promotes the tags’ spread nationwide.

Missouri’s Choose Life tag was unveiled earlier this month. Across the nation, the 17 other states that already offer the tags have raised a total of $8.7 million, Amerling said.

In North Carolina, the state House Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved the idea of a plate bearing the “Choose Life” message. More than 300 people would have to request the plate for it to be created.

Proceeds from the additional $25 cost of each plate would go to a special fund to benefit crisis pregnancy centers.

The bill now goes to the House Finance Committee.

Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina spokeswoman Paige Johnson said her group opposes the bill and believes legislative leaders won’t support allocating money for centers that fail to provide information to women about all of their options if they are pregnant.

Lawsuits in several states, including New York and New Jersey, are pending.

In 2004, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s ruling that the “Choose Life” plates approved by South Carolina lawmakers were unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, and the state was forced to pay Planned Parenthood’s $157,810 legal bill.

Legislators passed another law in 2006 meant to get around the ruling. It allows any nonprofit to apply to the DMV directly for special license plates. Before producing the tags, the agency must first collect 400 prepaid orders or $4,000 from a private group.

The South Carolina Baptist Convention put up $4,000 for the Choose Life plates earlier this year.

Attorney General Henry McMaster said he’s “supremely confident” this tag would survive a court challenge because it was approved through a process that treats all groups equally.

Reed said Planned Parenthood has no plans to sue South Carolina again, saying the anti-abortion groups are acting within their rights under the law.

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Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this story.