By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA – Anti-abortion senators amended a House bill Monday to allow for license plates that would say "Choose life."

House Bill 1253 originally let spouses of dead Medal of Honor winners keep special license plates. The anti-abortion message was amended to the bill 38-10. The measure has to go back to the House.

The Republican-controlled Senate defeated attempts to allow license plates that would carry a "Pro-family, pro-choice" message or that would promote the AIDS Survival Project.

The additional $25 charge for such license plates is designated for the cause they advertise. For a "Choose life" plate, some of the extra fee would go to "assisting crisis pregnancy centers and nonprofit adoption agencies" that do not discuss abortion.

The Senate also agreed to amendments that would add plates promoting "Adopt a child" and acknowledging the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, a historically black organization.

A portion of funds that would have been collected under the failed amendment allowing the abortion-rights message would have been dedicated to state-funded programs that support adoption agencies and for foster care programs.

Part of the money that would have been collected, if the AIDS Survival Project plate had passed, would have gone to programs for people with HIV.