RICHMOND DIGEST

-- Tim Craig

'Choose Life' Plate Advances

The House of Delegates voted to create a "Choose Life" license plate yesterday to raise money for crisis pregnancy centers that discourage abortion.

Under the proposal, which has cleared the Senate, motorists who want the plate will pay an extra $25 for it. After 1,000 plates have been ordered, $15 from each plate will go to Heartbeat International Inc. According to its Web site, Heartbeat International works to "create a world where every new life is welcomed and children are nurtured within strong families, according to God's Plan, so that abortion is unthinkable."

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, an abortion rights organization, issued a statement yesterday condemning the House vote.

"This license plate does nothing to help a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy," said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. "In fact, it generates state approved money for unregulated organizations that use deceptive tactics to prevent women from exercising the full range of reproductive choices."

Chris Freund, a spokesman for the Family Foundation, said: "One would hope that both pro-life and pro-choice Virginians could agree we need to offer as many services to a woman as possible so she can make a choice based on all the information available, and pregnancy resource centers offer a woman an alternative to the current system of abortion clinics only."

-- Tim Craig