Choose Life Plate Gets Billboard Boost

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Choose Life Plate Gets Billboard Boost

Special Report - October 20, 2009
The effort to give North Carolina motorists the opportunity to purchase a “Choose Life” specialty license plate is alive and well, despite the General Assembly’s failure in 2009 to consider a bill that would allow the sale of the plates. The Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (CPCF) recently unleashed a new billboard campaign aimed at promoting the “Choose Life” plates and informing North Carolina citizens about the issue. The first billboard——which is located on I-40 West (near the 100 mile marker), 2.4 miles west of Morganton, North Carolina—features the question, “Why Not NC?” and a picture of the proposed license plate, along with the web site, www.ncchoose-life.org. The web site includes information on the “Choose Life” plates and a link to an online petition that—so far—has been signed by over 2,300 citizens. According to the CPCF, the billboard is leased to the CPCF for three months at no cost, and the group plans to erect more billboards across the state, depending on donations.

Nationally, “Choose Life” plates are either available or approved in 24 states, most recently in Virginia. Legislation that would give North Carolinians the opportunity to purchase “Choose Life” plates has been introduced since 2000 but never considered, including as recently as 2009. HB 168/SB 210-“Choose Life” Special Plate is the only pro-life measure eligible for consideration in the 2010 legislative session. The bill would direct $15.00 from the sale of each plate to the CPCF, which will distribute the funds “annually to nongovernmental, not-for-profit agencies that provide pregnancy services that are limited to counseling and/or meeting the physical needs of pregnant women.” The bill specifies that none of the funds can go toward groups that provide, promote, or refer for abortion. Currently, North Carolina allows the purchase of over 120 specialty license plates promoting causes from “Save the Sea Turtles” to “AIDS Awareness.”

“It is simply unacceptable that North Carolina is the only state in the southeast that won't allow the ‘Choose Life’ plate, especially in the midst of so much need,” Bobbie Meyer, President of the Board of Directors of the CPCF and Executive Director of the Pregnancy Resource Center in Charlotte, said in a statement.

For more on this issue, please read our recent magazine article, “Unequal Treatment: State Lawmakers Deny Citizens the Opportunity to Buy Choose Life Plates.”