COLUMBIA--For once, the state Legislature might
actually have to make a life or death decision.
After the U.S. Supreme Court opted out of the anti-abortion license plate
debate Monday, two South Carolina lawmakers introduced new vanity tags for
anyone who didn't "Choose Life."
Their ideas: "Choose Abortion" or "Choose Death" -- your choice, of course.
State Rep. John Graham Altman said for $70 South Carolina motorists could
choose between "Choose Life" or "Choose Abortion" tags, with the proceeds going
toward prevention and cure of breast cancer.
"This should comply with that crazy court decision," said Altman,
R-Charleston.
Sen. Mike Fair, who proposed a "Choose Death" tag, said his anti-abortion
tags would benefit the Crisis Pregnancy Center, while any money raised by the
death tags would go to the Department of Mental Health for post-abortion trauma
treatment.
"This is meant as a message to address this sad state of affairs," said Fair,
R-Greenville.
The bills are a reaction from a General Assembly that has been struggling
with the vanity tag issue over the past four years. In 2001, the Legislature
approved a "Choose Life" vanity tag only to have Planned Parenthood and other
groups successfully sue to stop the tag.
South Carolina has fought that decision all the way to the 4th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, losing at every level. What has frustrated Altman, Fair and
some others is that the tags have been ruled constitutional in the 5th Circuit,
which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
That doesn't seem fair to some lawmakers, who are so anti-abortion they once
proposed building a monument to an unborn fetus on the Statehouse grounds.
Still, there is no telling what might happen with these proposals. On
Tuesday, most lawmakers ran when asked whether they would support these bills.
Others just shook their head in disbelief. Sen. Clementa Pinckney,
D-Ridgeland, said he was personally not in favor of abortion but didn't know
that the Legislature needed to be weighing in on the debate.
"These are very personal issues, and I would hope we could back off some of
the real intense rhetoric," Pinckney said. "While this is good for a laugh,
there's no need for this level of crassness."
Altman, who proposed a "Choose Death" tag two years ago, says he believes the
General Assembly will look favorably upon his bill. Fair isn't so sure.
"Does it have a chance?" Fair said. "I don't know."
