One of the most important gifts you can give is life, and that was one Florida man’s dream in the late 90s.
Randy Harris started Choose Life, Inc., in 1997 with the goal of providing specialty license plates in Florida to promote adoption. Along with spreading a pro-life message and alternatives to abortion, the proceeds from the license plates go to non-profit pregnancy resource centers.
Pregnancy resource centers offer hope to women facing unplanned pregnancies by providing practical help and emotional support. They assist with housing, clothing, transportation, financial support, and counseling. To date, Choose Life, Inc., has brought in $12.3 million for pregnancy resource centers, life affirming maternity homes, and adoption agencies.
Twenty-three states currently have Choose Life license plates. North Dakota has approved the license plates, but they are not available yet. To see if your state offers the Choose Life license plate, visit Choose Life.org.
Changing Minds
She was parked in a shopping mall parking lot. When she returned to her car, she found a young girl, standing behind her car crying. The girl said she wanted to meet the owner of the car. The lady thought the girl had been in an accident, but no, the girl wanted to thank her for having a Choose Life license plate, because God had used it to convict the girl’s heart and help her decide against an abortion.
The girl had been in her boyfriend’s car on the way to an abortion clinic when she began praying about the decision to abort, an idea with which she had been struggling. Her boyfriend wanted her to have the abortion, and he was paying for it. She was going along with it partly because she had been afraid to tell her parents about the pregnancy. On the way to end the child’s life, she was hit with an urgent need to use the restroom. She asked her boyfriend to pull into the mall parking lot, so she could use the bathroom in the mall. That is when she saw the Choose Life license plate.
She told her boyfriend that she would be right back. She phoned her parents from the mall and asked them to come get her. Then she went back to talk with her boyfriend after going to the bathroom. But he was gone. That is when she waited behind the woman’s car to thank her for having the Choose Life license plate. “You never know how God will use our smallest actions,” the woman said.1
Choose Life License Plates Save Another
Teresa (not her real name) arrived at a pregnancy center in Tampa, Florida, and told her story to a counselor. She was en route to have an abortion and saw several Choose Life license plates on the 10-mile drive. When she arrived at the abortion clinic, she told Judy, the counselor out front “You are a sign and seal that what I was about to do was wrong.” She drove off knowing her future was going to be rough, but she felt assured that God was going to use her in His plan.2
These are just two of the many testimonies from women who saw the Choose Life license plates and changed their minds about having an abortion. Beginning with one man’s dream, and powered by God’s grace, women across the country are choosing to let their children live.
Ashley Timberlake is an intern with Concerned Women for America’s Ronald Reagan Memorial Internship Program. To learn more about our internship program, click here.
End Notes
- Choose Life, Inc., July 1, 2009, accessed at http://www.choose-life.org/states.htm, June 30, 2010.
- Choose Life, Inc., February 10, 2010, accessed at http://www.choose-life.org/testimonies.html,June 30, 2010.