A bill authorizing the California government to create pro-abortion license plates to benefit the abortion industry died in committee this month.
The California Pro-Life Council celebrated the victory over the weekend after working hard to stop the pro-abortion bill.
Brian Johnston, executive director of the pro-life group, said the bill would have sent more taxpayer dollars to the abortion industry, which already receives huge amounts of money from the government, One News Now reports.
“It’s a government-sponsored industry, and these folks are here to get more government money,” Johnston said during a Senate committee hearing earlier this summer. “This government-sponsored industry brings great pressure against young mothers. And if this is about choice – the other choice is letting the child live.”
California Senate Bill 309, sponsored by pro-abortion state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, passed the Senate earlier this summer, but it died in a state Assembly committee last week.
California Matters reports the bill was one of dozens that state lawmakers blocked during the final days of the legislative session. The costs of creating the new license plates appear to have been the reason.
According to the report:
An analysis by the Assembly Appropriations Committee estimated it would cost the up to $590,000 to create the specialized license plate, including computer programming changes, new forms and administrative costs. The state would have been reimbursed by the fees Californians would have paid to get the plate.
Jackson told the local news that she was disappointed but hopes to re-introduce the bill sometime in the future.
Her bill would have authorized the state to create a new pro-abortion “California Trusts Women” license plate. Proceeds from the sales of the plates would go to Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses.
The motto “trust women” comes from former late-term abortionist George Tiller, who was shot and killed near his Kansas abortion clinic in 2009, the report states. According to those close to him, Tiller often used the phrase to promote his work.
Pro-life advocates urged lawmakers to reject the bill or offer a pro-life alternative.
Here’s more from One News Now:
Johnston told legislators that another decision should come to mind if true choice is the goal.
“Thirty-seven states have license plates that affirm life,” he noted. “And we would suggest, in order to make this a balanced bill and not an ideological one, there would be license plates offered to affirm the choice to keep the child and care for that vulnerable child.”
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Johnston said the California Pro-life Council would consider dropping opposition to the bill if proponents took that fair and reasonable approach.
A few states have pro-abortion license plates as a counter to the pro-life “Choose Life” plates that have become popular in dozens of states. The pro-life plates currently are available in about 30 states; California is not one of them, according to the organization that promotes the effort.
The “Choose Life” organization reports the license plates have raised millions of dollars to help pregnant and parenting families and adoptions. In the Midwest, Indiana raised $650,000, and Ohio raised more than $500,000. Both states have more than 25,000 vehicles with “Choose Life” plates, according to the organization.
In 2016, North Carolina won a long court battle when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that its “Choose Life” license plates, approved by the legislature in 2011, are constitutional.
The battle over the North Carolina pro-life plates went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, LifeNews reported. The high court ordered the 4th Circuit Court, which previously struck down the law, to reconsider the case in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in another license plate case, Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.
