To mark the 40th anniversary of the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court rulings that stripped unborn children throughout the United States of their legal right to life, the Pro-Life Action League launched a nationwide prayer vigil under the theme “Blessed are they who mourn.” Activists across the country were invited to visit memorials dedicated to the unborn victims of abortion—especially gravesites where these victims are actually buried—on January 22 and offer prayers of mourning for the over 55 million children legally killed since that date in 1973. My mother Ann composed a special prayer for the event, which was made available on a page dedicated to the project on the League website.
The project began in December with a call to pro-lifers all over the country to let me know about memorials dedicated to the aborted unborn. Response was overwhelming, and I soon had hundreds of sites listed online, including dozens of actual burial places.
The event was inspired in part by the reflections on the beatitudes in Pope Benedict XVI’s book Jesus of Nazareth, which presents mourning as a powerful way to confront the evil of death and deny its ultimate power. When we mourn for the victims of abortion—when we open our hearts to deeply feeling the pain of their loss—we acknowledge that their lives really mattered. We strike a blow at the Enemy, who wants our entire society to forget all about these silent, hidden victims, boldly declaring that we will never forget them.
National Day of Remembrance 9/14
Response to this project was so overwhelming that I was inspired to collaborate with two of my closest pro-life allies—Monica Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life—to hold an even bigger event. The National Day of Remembrance for Abortion Victims will take place on September 14—the anniversary of an historic burial of fetal remains in Milwaukee—with simultaneous memorial services at every known gravesite of the aborted unborn. You can learn more at AbortionMemorials.com.
