'Choose Electrolux' Plate Available Soon

by: michael r. shannon | published: 02 19, 2010

Last year Virginia’s liberal “progressives” — whose commitment to the free marketplace of ideas endures only so long as it exclusively supports their views — were outraged over the advent of the “Choose Life” personalized license plate.

There’s just something about trying to keep babies alive that makes their blood boil.

Gov. Tim Kaine, described by the Washington Post as “a Catholic who personally opposes abortion,” signed legislation authorizing the plate. This “personally opposed” phrasing by Catholic members of the Party of Death, is not a statement of strong moral standards. It’s simply a dodge that says these particular convictions are so limp and malleable they won’t actually take any positive political steps to support their own beliefs.

Nancy Keenan, fervent supporter of capital punishment for the unborn and president of NARAL Pro–Choice America, complained, “It is unfortunate that, even after receiving thousands of messages from Virginians and pro-choice activists across the country, Gov. Kaine has opted to sign a bill that advances a divisive political ideology at the expense of women's health."

This legislative session NARAL and Planned Parenthood are lobbying for a plate and I support the effort. If my side can have a “Choose Life” plate, I see no reason why NARAL and its ilk should be denied a “Choose Death” plate. After all, fair is fair.

The “Choose Life” plate is a straightforward design, it reads “Choose life” across the top in a childlike crayon–looking typeface and it has an equally childlike drawing of a boy and a girl on the left.

The message is simple: choose to let these children live.

The pro–abortion plate is simple, clean and I guarantee it is the antithesis of childlike. For me, there is a certain amount of confusion associated with the stylized figure at the bottom (see illustration). At first glance it appears the woman is jumping for joy since the baby’s dead. But if you turn your head just a bit, it can also look like she’s fleeing the abortionist’s vacuum.

But there is no confusion with regard to the slogan: it clearly says the “progressive” lobby knows the A–word is the kiss of death, so to speak.

Instead their plate has the slogan “Trust Women. Respect Choice.”

Ambiguity thy name is liberal. Trust what exactly? Trust women to choose the best restaurant for lunch? The deodorant that doesn’t leave messy rings? The tampon that doesn’t interfere with an active lifestyle?

Oh, wait, I see; trust women to make the choice that says your little life doesn’t outweigh the inconvenience your birth and subsequent existence will cause me. That choice, the word people don’t like to mention in polite company or display on license plates.

After the first 1,000 Choose Life plates are sold, $15 of the $25.00 annual fee goes to Heartbeat International, which is one of the dreaded Christian pregnancy organizations that advise women to save the baby.

NARAL and it’s posse objects to Heartbeat getting a dime, because it is not a “medical” organization with doctors and nurses on staff. But why would it need to be, since Heartbeat isn’t in the extermination business, like Planned Terminex.

I don’t think a geyser of money from an untapped abortion supporting target market is going to be a problem for “Planned Parenthood,” the proposed beneficiary of the “Choose Death” plate.

Currently Virginia is the 24th state to offer a “Choose Life” plate. Since 2000, 520,000 of the plates have been sold nationwide, generating $11 million for pro–life crisis pregnancy centers, adoption services and maternity homes.

A mere four states offer a “Choose Death” plate and in Pennsylvania, one of the four, there are only 22 active plates. In Hawaii, the first state to offer the “Respect Choice” plate, a lack of consumer interest may cancel the program entirely.

Which shows that even in a highly dilute form, pro–abortion sentiment is not one with which the average driver wants to be associated. Here in the Commonwealth, only 400 drivers expressed an interest in the plate — a scant 50 over the minimum necessary.

One of the factors complicating passage of the bill approving the plate is the fact the money, assuming NARAL can recruit 1,001 “progressives” who want to fly the abortion flag on their auto, will go to “Planned Parenthood” an abortion mill that many Republican members of the legislature refuse to fund.

And they have a good point. If the slogan is “Respect Choice” why not send the money to an organization that offers more than one option?

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