Last week, a federal judge ruled that North Carolina can’t issue license plates that read “Choose Life,” because the state legislature failed to approve a plate that reflects a different point of view. What point of view? Death. In this instance, the death of unborn babies. The other side won’t frame it that way, of course. Almighty “choice” is the chosen euphemism. The word “death” is raw and callous. It’s too specific. The focus is a woman’s control over her body after she becomes pregnant, not the cessation of tiny life inside the womb nor the manner in which it ends.
After all, killing unborn babies is legal in the United States.
Last year, the North Carolina General Assembly approved the bill that would allow 60 percent of the cost of the pro-life license plates to go to the non-profit Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation challenged the bill on First Amendment grounds and won. Break out the champagne! From the Associated Press:
“This is a great victory for the free speech rights of all North Carolinians, regardless of their point of view on reproductive freedom,” said Chris Brook, legal director of the ACLU-NCLF. “The government cannot create an avenue of expression for one side of a contentious political issue while denying an equal opportunity to citizens with the opposite view. We are very pleased that the court agrees that such a one-sided scheme constituted viewpoint discrimination and violated the First Amendment. We would have made the exact same argument if the situation was reversed, and the state planned on issuing a pro-choice plate while not offering one expressing the opposite point of view.”
Free speech? Reproductive freedom? Choose life! Choose death! The whole matter could be cleared up if the legislature passes a bill that reflects the pro-death point of view, which no doubt will be couched in terms like “Respect Choice” or “My Uterus, My Choice!” or another variation. Can you imagine a “Choose Death” license plate? Neither can those who support abortion. But it would be honest. The choice pro-aborts seem to respect the most is the one that ends with an empty womb.
Almost everything is political. Even the pro-life side has an element of politics. Protecting unborn babies is a moral and political battle. A candidate’s stance on abortion is important. Media messages on the issue are important. One of the best pro-life political victories to emerge is state legislatures de-funding abortion mill Planned Parenthood. The U.S. Supreme Court might have discovered a previously hidden right of privacy of women to kill their unborn babies, but taxpayers, especially those who believe abortion is murder, should not be forced to pay for it.
“[F]or I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” Do discarded unborn babies have souls? Do these souls cry out? There will be a reckoning, but thanks be to God, there is redemption.
