when a bumper sticker is apparently not enough

so just in case your "ILuvL1F" personalized license plate or bumper sticker "it's not a choice it's a child" is not sufficient to covey your anti abortion beliefs, in eighteen states efforts are underway for you to be able to purchase an anti-abortion license plate. Not surprisingly the idea has caused some controversy and a variety of legal cases are winding their way through the courts, as detailed in this article on Salon.com. I am firm supporter of civil liberties, so I hope that the viewpoint of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court prevails, states can offer anti abortion plates if they offer pro abortion plates as well.

What I find particularly interesting about this issue is not the First Amendment rights at stake, although they are fairly fascinating from an intellectual perspective but rather that pro choice people would probably never want a license plate that announces their beliefs. In my other online connections to abortion rights activists there is a fairly prevalent fear of the anti abortion crazies, the ones who stalk abortion providers and attack, even murder them. There seems something ironic about the other side, which purports to defend life relying ultimately on a rhetoric and reality of fear and intimidation. The disproportionate influence of the violent faction of the anti abortion movement has a deleterious impact on the literally millions of women in the United States who have had abortions and fear for their safety if they speak publicly about them.