Nothing can describe many alleged “pro-life” programs better than the phrase about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. How ironic that those concerned about the lives of unborn fetuses could create programs which in fact act to destroy families, the cornerstone of civilization.



Take for instance, the state of Florida’s “Choose Life” license plate fund established by a group of Marion County residents who wanted to encourage women to choose life over abortion. A benign enough sounding cause – saving lives - until you look into the major anti-family strings attached to it:



Funds raised through the sale of the license plates are used to support pregnant women who plan to continue their pregnancies, based on financial need, but with a big string attached. Women who do not abort an unplanned pregnancy, but choose life and desire to raise their own children, are denied help from the program. The funds can ONLY be given to those who choose life and relinquish their beloved babies for adoption, usually by non-related strangers.



In other words, the state fund is used not to save babies and support mothers and families in crisis, but to increase the supply of babies available for a very lucrative adoption industry estimated at $2-3 billion dollars a year. If the goal were truly to save the life of an unborn from being aborted, why apply a restrictive condition that creates lifelong grief?



Last year, the seventh year of the program, the plates were the biggest seller among Florida’s 104 specialty tags, with 41,051 sales – at $22 each ($19 for renewal). Statewide last year, counties spent nearly $200,000 less than they took in, and they had three times more money in reserves than they did in expenditures. The cruel anti-family design of this program, would rather have money sit unused than use it to help struggling families who chose not to abort and may need assistance to remain together.





Well-intentioned pro-life supporters are naively unaware of the connection between the religious right and the multi-billion dollar a year national adoption industry. Babies are a huge, money-making commodity and the ties are closely intertwined between the National Council for Adoption—the largest lobbying organization of adoption agencies, primarily those of the Later Day Saints—and Evangelical Christians organizations such as Focus on the Family who held a three-day summit in Colorado in May, 2007 to promote adoption.



Programs such as this Florida license plate program which offer funds to expectant mothers allegedly to save the life of their unborn—but which hold out discriminatory caveats—need to seen for what they are: a mean-spirited attack on the family and a violation of the separation of church and state. Religious beliefs are being used to discriminate against and deconstruct families in need and supply babies for adoption. This is sinful, immoral and a violation of the constitutional right to parent.





