ROANOKE - Pro-life or pro-choice, license plates have become the new picket signs.
The sale of Virginia’s “Choose Life” license plate has raised more than $13,000 for pregnancy centers. Another plate that reads “Trust women. Respect choice.“ was just passed by the General Assembly.
“Four hundred Virginians have requested this plate and requested their monies go toward Planned Parenthood.“, says Planned Parenthood Vice President David Nova.
The house plan, however, diverts the proceeds to an unused fund to to support women with unplanned pregnancies. This has enraged supporters who’ve already paid for plates. Nova says Planned Parenthood would use the money for services not including abortion.
“I think the intent is clearly to divert the monies away from Planned Parenthood.“, says Nova. “I don’t think they’re trying to fund anything. I think they’re just trying not to allow Virginians to use a specialty license plate to help support Planned Parenthood.“
Dave Bluey is the CEO of the Pregnancy Resource Center of the New River Valley. The center does not perform abortions and is set to receive money from the sale of the “Choose Life” plate. Bluey says because the center is not a state agency, it will likely not receive money from the pro-choice plate.
“They would fund things like ultrasound machines, parenting programs.“, says Bluey. “Similar to what we do basically, but it wouldn’t be faith based.“
When asked if he thought money from the pro-choice plate would be tainted, Bluey replied, “We’re non-political. Our organization is truly non-political. That would be something our board of directors would have to determine.“
Planned Parenthood says if they money is indeed diverted, they’ll have no choice other than heading to court. The ACLU is already planning a constitutional challenge.
The DMV says organizations requesting plates collect and hold the money until the plates are produced. Planned Parenthood collected the money for the pro-choice plate.
