Massachusetts Choose Life License Plates Providing Resources For Mothers, Babies, And The Pro-Life Cause
By Tom Joyce | March 9, 2021, 11:04 EST

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is pro-life?
Actually, there’s one way it sort of is.
In Massachusetts, optional specialty license plates support a variety of causes. One of them is Choose Life Massachusetts, an organization that uses the revenue it collects to offer grants for pro-life activities, including crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life advocacy groups, and housing for poor women.
As of January 27, 2021, there were 3,100 vehicles registered in Massachusetts with Choose Life license plates. However, 2020 marked the lowest sales for the plate on record since they became available to the public in 2010. While the owners of 165 vehicles ordered the plates for the first time in 2019, that figure declined to 143 last year, according to data provided by the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles to NewBostonPost.
The coronavirus emergency may have something to do with the 13 percent drop in Choose Life plates. Supporters of the program are just happy that many people are driving with them.
Merry Nordeen, the founder of Choose Life Massachusetts, gets a kick out of seeing the license plates on the road.
“It’s rewarding to see it,” said Nordeen, who also serves as an administrative assistant at St. Joseph’s Parish in Wakefield, in a telephone interview with NewBostonPost late last month. “My initial desire was to have the plate for myself, but I didn’t realize plates were different from state to state. It was in Florida that it was making the news. I thought it was a great idea, so I called them, and they said it wasn’t available and no one was working on it. I’m so proud to see so many people with the plates. People will send me pictures of them and show me how everyone in their family has one. You’ll go to some organizational meetings — like a Massachusetts Citizens for Life dinner — and you’ll see all these cars with the plates. It’s the best feeling in the world. I hope we can continue increasing our numbers.”
The Massachusetts state government offers 48 specialty license plates to automobile owners willing to spend a little extra for a cause. A state statute (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 90, Section 2F) calls them “distinctive registration plates.” One example: A car owner who renews a registration ordinarily pays $60 for a two-year period — but for an extra $40, the owner can get Choose Life license plates. If a car owner wants to switch right away, the state charges a $20 swapping fee plus the $40 specialty license plate fee.
The first time around that a car owner pays that extra $40, Choose Life Massachusetts receives $28, because $12 of it goes to pay the cost of the license plate. In subsequent years, Choose Life Massachusetts receives the entire $40 specialty plate fee.
Getting the plate approved in Massachusetts took years. Nordeen started on the project in 2003 after hearing about it in many other states, but she didn’t get approval for it until 2010. The reason: the sponsoring organization must collect at least 1,500 applications before getting the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to consider approving a design for it. The organization also must post a $100,000 bond; if the state sells 3,000 plates within the first two years, then the organization receives the money back.
Although Choose Life Massachusetts fell short of the 3,000 standard during the first two years of the program, an anonymous donor paid the cost of getting the bond. Bond fees usually cost between 1 and 4 percent of the bond’s face value, although they can be as high as 15 percent, according to Surety Solutions.
The Choose Life plates haven’t exactly taken off, but there are enough on the road that they are noticeable. Supporters consider them a success.
It was hard going at first.
“I thought everyone would love the idea as much as I did and that it would be so easy to get it done. I thought I’d do one more thing, get one more interview and it’d be done,” Nordeen said. “I was on the cover of the living section of The Boston Globe and thought that’d be the breakthrough, but no one read it.”
The under-read Boston Globe story appeared June 10, 2010. After it didn’t work, Nordeen tried a more personal approach.
“What I started doing was asking people to ask two more people to get the license plate. One woman was going to all of the churches in the area telling the priests that they needed to have information about it in their churches,” Nordeen said. “… We had a lot of people pitching in and that was what we needed to succeed.”
With the specialty license plate money, Nordeen issues grants a few times a year.
Choose Life Massachusetts offers three kinds of grants. One is a promotional grant; that’s a $2,000 grant for organizations that promote Choose Life Massachusetts through either their web site or newsletter. Another kind is the new center grant; this is a grant of up to $5,000 either to new organizations or to organizations that have to undergo major renovations.
The third type is the training/expense grant; this grant allows organizations to send people to pro-life conferences and sonogram training, or to defray the cost of a one-time purchase to advance the pro-life cause or to offset the cost of a fund-raising event of a pro-life organization. These grants are typically $1,000, although as needed they help send two people from the same organization to certain pro-life conferences and events, totaling $2,000.
“We’re supporting crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and other pro-life organization centers as well,” Nordeen said. “It’s rewarding, but I’m not doing any of the great work these organizations do. I’m not there counseling a woman through an unplanned pregnancy, but in my own way, I’m able to support them.”
The grants may seem modest, but for some it makes all the difference.
“It really hit home when one organization sent a thank you note saying that our $2,000 grant was 25 percent of their budget,” Nordeen said. “You think $2,000 isn’t a lot of money, but for some organizations it’s huge.”
Nordeen provided NewBostonPost with the list of recipients from 2020. All are in Massachusetts:
Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, Attleboro
Bethesda House, North Pembroke
Bethlehem House, Easthampton
Heartbeat Ministries, Burlington
Life Matters TV, Boston
North Berkshire Pregnancy Support Center dba New Direction, North Adams
Pregnancy Support Services of Berkshire County, Pittsfield
Problem Pregnancy, Worcester
NewBostonPost reached out to a handful of organizations that have received grants from the program –in 2020 and before. Recipients said the grant program is vital.
That includes Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which received grants in 2013, 2016, and 2017.
“By defraying fundraising costs, the grants that Massachusetts Citizens for Life has been privileged to receive from Choose Life License Plates have maximized the impact of donor support for our life-saving work,” MCFL executive director Pat Stewart told NewBostonPost in an email message. “We are a grateful beneficiary of this inspired, life-affirming initiative.”
Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center of Attleboro is a frequent recipient of the grant; since 2013, the center has received it eight times. It’s right near an abortion clinic in the city.
Bethesda House in Pembroke has received grants in each of the past four years.
Additionally, the Department of Transportation provided NewBostonPost with the program’s revenue data from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2020.