It’s baaaack: House Transportation Committee is now hearing testimony supporting the creation of a “Choose Life” license plate.
Ostensibly, the creation of the plate – another perennial favorite that just hasn’t quite made it through to the guv’s desk, but will likely do so this session – is meant to give a shout out to adoption as a positive outcome for unplanned pregnancies, with the proceeds from the plates going to support organizations that provide “counseling and material assistance to pregnant women who are considering placing their children for adoption.”
And that, says the bill’s author, Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, is important: “For me the license plate is important…for the sake of someone who is pro-life, I feel we need to encourage the option of adoption,” he said this morning during his introduction of the bill.
That’s great, but it poses the essential question that was raised last year: If the plate is meant to pimp adoption, then why doesn’t it read “Choose Adoption” or “Support Adoption”? That’s a question no one has been able to answer.
It seems safe to guess, however, that the plate isn’t simply a way to give props to adoption – certainly a worthy and important cause – but rather to advance a political stance. If that’s not the case why then have amendments to the bill that would create an equal message – like “Pro-Family, Pro-Choice” been rejected?
Moreover, it doesn’t appear that the funding (currently projected to generate just $6,600 per year) would be earmarked solely for agencies directly involved in adoption services and placement. According to the current version of the bill, the funds would also be available to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” unlicensed and unregulated centers that don’t provide medical services, but seek to sway women from choosing to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. (Those agencies are already funded handsomely via the Alternatives to Abortion program created by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, in 2005.)
With 95 House co-sponsors already signed on to the measure, it’s pretty much a done deal in the House. Whether members of the Senate will again try to finesse the bill – pushing the “Choose Adoption” option, for example – remains to be seen.
Watch now, here.
This article appears in February 25 • 2011.