‘Memorial to the Missing’ gathers pennies to remember abortion’s toll on innocent life

‘Memorial to the Missing’ gathers pennies to remember abortion’s toll on innocent life

By Gregory Tomlin
Baptist Press

EDITORS’ NOTE: Sunday, Jan. 21, is Sanctity of Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.

JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Alone, the penny is the least of U.S. currency. Few things, if any, can be bought with it. The U.S. government has proposed no longer producing it, feeling it insignificant and often unused.

But Baptists all over the state of Mississippi now pay attention to pennies even on the sidewalk or in a parking lot, knowing that each one has value.

These Mississippi Baptists don’t pocket the pennies for themselves. They have been bagging the pennies and shipping them in bulk to the Baptist Building in Jackson. Or they may even tape a few pennies to a piece of paper and send them through the mail. Each penny will go to a special place because it represents something -– rather, someone -– special.

However they are shipped, the pennies will find their home among millions of others at a special “Memorial to the Missing,” the Baptist convention’s tribute to the nearly 50 million children aborted in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.

To date, Baptists in the state have contributed more than 26 million pennies to the project toward the goal of 50 million. Dropping the pennies in the 12-by-16-foot covered, bullet-proof glass enclosure that makes up the memorial is their way of showing the world that no life is insignificant.

“It’s not the 50 million pennies that are important,” said Jimmy Porter, executive director of the convention’s Christian Action Commission. “It’s the 50 million children.”

And though the number of abortions has declined annually in recent years, it is almost impossible to keep up with them. “There is an abortion in this country every 20 to 22 seconds,” Porter said.

The effects of abortion on children are well-known. But since the Supreme Court legalized the practice in all 50 states, it has also wrecked the lives of countless women who have had them and their extended families as well, said Jim Futral, the state convention’s executive director-treasurer.
Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)