License Plates

According to the Dispatch, the ACLU has dropped a lawsuit that sought to prevent Ohio from selling/distributing specialty license plates with the message "choose life." I am almost always on the side of the ACLU, but they had this one wrong from the get-go. I'll leave the legal reasons to legal scholars, but less formally: Choosing life entails having a choice. I am pro-choice. Would I encourage people to make responsible choices that lead to fewer unintended pregnancies? Yes. Would I encourage women with unintended pregnancies to carefully consider their options? Yes. Do I think that some abortions are performed with total disregard for the potential ramifications of that decision. Yes.

I am not pro-abortion.

Do I think that abortion is always the wrong choice? No. Do I think that it is possible to justify some abortions that I would not have personally approved of? Probably. Do I think that a woman should have to justify herself to some random blogger, or seek the personal approval of the people in her neighborhood, when she makes a very difficult and personal decision? Absolutely not.

I am pro-privacy, and pro-rights.

Telling your fellow motorists that you would encourage them to "choose life" is exactly the way you should be exercising your freedom of speech and participating in a free and democratic society.

Choosing it for them is not.

So now, ACLU... how about doing something about them "One Nation Under God" plates?