(A) The Department of Motor Vehicles shall issue special motor vehicle license plates to owners of private passenger carrying motor vehicles or light pickups having an empty weight of seven thousand pounds or less and a gross weight of nine thousand pounds or less registered in their names which shall have imprinted on the plate the words "Choose Life". The fee for this special license plate is seventy dollars every two years in addition to the regular motor vehicle license fee set forth in Article 5. This special license plate must be of the same size and general design of regular motor vehicle license plates. The special license plates must be issued or revalidated for a biennial period which expires twenty-four months from the month they are issued.

(B) The fees collected pursuant to this section, after the costs to produce and administer the distribution of this special license plate, must be deposited in a special account, separate and apart from the general fund, designated for use by the Department of Social Services to be used to support local crisis pregnancy programs. Local private nonprofit tax exempt organizations offering crisis pregnancy services may apply for grants from this fund to further their tax exempt purposes. Grants must be awarded not more than once a year, and an applicant must receive as a grant an amount of the total revenues in the fund multiplied by the percentage that the applicant's case load in the preceding calendar year was of the total case load of all applicants in that year. Grants may not be awarded to any agency, institution, or organization that provides, promotes, or refers for abortion.

(C) Before the Department of Motor Vehicles produces and distributes a special license plate pursuant to this section, it must receive four hundred prepaid applications for the special license plate or a deposit of four thousand dollars from the individual or organization seeking issuance of the license plate. If a deposit of four thousand dollars is made by an individual or organization pursuant to this section, the department must refund the four thousand dollars once an equivalent amount of license plate fees is collected for that organization's license plate. If the equivalent amount is not collected within four years of the first issuance of the license plate, the department shall retain the deposit.

(D) If the department receives less than three hundred biennial applications and renewals for the "Choose Life" special license plate, it may not produce additional special license plates in that series. However, the department shall continue to issue special license plates of that series until the existing inventory is exhausted.

HISTORY: 2001 Act No. 104, Section 6.