December 9, 2002

Anti-abortion license plates allowed
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case challenging some states' practice of offering anti-abortion-themed license plates to automobile owners. The justices refused, without comment, to hear an appeal from Louisiana abortion-rights supporters.
___The group of Louisianans had challenged the constitutionality of the state's "Choose Life" license plate program, where motorists pay an extra $25 to get a special license plate bearing the anti-abortion slogan and featuring a pelican--the state bird--carrying a swaddled infant in its beak.
___The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, representing the group opposed to the plates, said the program violates two aspects of the First Amendment. First, the Louisianans said, the license plate program violates the Constitution's free-speech protections by supporting the viewpoints of abortion opponents without offering a similar platform for those who support abortion rights.
___Second, the group said, the program violates the First Amendment's ban on government support for, or entanglement with, religion because the extra revenues the state receives from the plates go to a fund controlled by religious groups. The fund gives grants to crisis-pregnancy programs that counsel women against getting abortions and toward carrying their babies to term.
___But the state's attorneys said the religious concerns were unfounded and that the state has the right to encourage women to consider alternatives to abortion.
___Although the plaintiffs won an initial victory against the license plates in federal court, they lost in the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans. They then appealed to the Supreme Court.
___According to the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, five states besides Louisiana offer "Choose Life" license plates.

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