Although I needn't remind you, it is crucial that we never forget that legal abortion is a moral monstrosity that not only kills babies but also emotionally and psychologically maims many others.

I thought of the importance of that witness when I read a story forwarded to me by a friend from a Mississippi newspaper.

The headline reads, "Every penny counts: $500K collected at memorial to be used to fund anti-abortion causes." That's right: a half-million dollars in the form of 50 million pennies.

The Mississippi Baptist Convention's 56-ton memorial was erected on Mother's Day in 2006.

"We just needed something to memorialize and help people see the magnitude of abortion over the last several decades," the Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention's Christian Action Commission to the Clarion Ledger's Jean Gordon.

The goal of "Memorial to the Missing" was to collect one penny for each child who would have been born had not Roe v. Wade legalized abortion on demand in 1973. Now that this goal has been met, the Convention will "invest the money in a fund dedicated to anti-abortion causes."

The plaque on the Memorial asks passersby to "stop, pray, consider what we are doing as a nation, ask God to forgive us, seek ways to help those who are struggling with the decision and look to the Lord to restore each of us." And judging by the comments of Convention spokesman William Perkins, it's had just that effect.

He told Gordon of one group of victims not ordinarily thought of in those terms.

"There are a number of stories we've heard about grandparents who walk by and saw it and read the plaque and dug in their pockets and put pennies in the memorial for grandchildren who have been aborted," he said.

It's easy to get lost in the details of the Memorial's vastness. For example, weighing a whopping 300,000 pounds, the glass-and steel container is "reinforced by five concrete pilings buried 14 feet into the ground." The coins themselves "are piled 6 feet deep in the 13-by-7 glass house," Gordon explains.

But the real story is found in other wording found on the plaque. It says the coins not only represent aborted babies but also "the fear and loneliness" involved with abortion.
Each one of the children had a mother and a father, grandparents, and in most cases aunts and uncles, and, perhaps, siblings. The death toll exacts a price of so many people.

The Memorial's very positioning (facing the Mississippi State Capitol) is symbolic. Perkins said it "sends a message to legislators that Mississippi Baptists support laws that oppose abortion." As far as the Legislature goes, ""This is one of the most pro-life states in the country," Perkins said.

Gordon adds this telling note: "There is only one abortion provider in Mississippi, and the state has some of most restrictive [protective] abortion laws in the country."

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part One