Cleveland, OH – Liberty Counsel has filed a motion to intervene in federal court to defend Ohio’s “Choose Life” license plate. The National Abortion Rights Action League (“NARAL”) is seeking to block the “Choose Life” specialty plate along with the entire system of authorizing specialty and vanity license plates. Liberty Counsel is seeking intervention in the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to defend the “Choose Life” license plate on behalf of Cornerstone Pregnancy Services, Isaiah’s Hope, Mary Ellen Urmin and Patrick Corrigan.

Anyone who purchases a “Choose Life” plate pays an additional fee to obtain the plate. Those funds are then used to support local crisis pregnancy centers, with the express condition that no funds may go to an entity that provides, promotes, or refers for abortion. Ohio currently authorizes more than fifty specialty plates, many of which contain private expression.

Liberty Counsel’s clients consist of two individuals who plan to purchase the “Choose Life” specialty plate in order to support life as an alternative to abortion, and who also seek to have their funds distributed to agencies that promote adoption. Cornerstone Pregnancy Services and Isaiah’s Hope are crisis pregnancy and adoption support centers, which provide services to pregnant women and encourage adoption as an alternative to abortion. Together, they argue that the Choose Life statute is a valid exercise of government speech. Just as Ohio can warn of the health consequences of smoking, so the state is entitled to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion.

Yesterday, the federal court denied NARAL’s request for an emergency order blocking the plate. Thus, the state will immediately begin issuing the “Choose Life” plates. The court has now asked for additional briefing on the question of whether NARAL has standing to bring this case against the state of Ohio. Liberty Counsel will be filing another brief arguing that NARAL’s lawsuit should be dismissed.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, commented, “If those who call themselves ‘pro-choice’ were genuinely concerned about the best interests of women and children, they would welcome a pro-adoption message. Their actions betray their rhetoric.”
Liberty Counsel successfully intervened on behalf of individuals and crisis pregnancy centers to defend Florida’s “Choose Life” license plate. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in the first ruling of its kind in the country, upheld Florida’s “Choose Life” license plate. Almost three million dollars has been generated from the sale of the Florida plates for pro-adoption services. Liberty Counsel is currently defending Arkansas’s “Choose Life” plate. Liberty Counsel has also filed a brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to defend Tennessee’s “Choose Life” license plate.