Amidst historic state abortion battles, area residents gather to mourn abortion’s unborn victims

By Bud Shaver

Albuquerque, NM- As the fate of Roe v. Wadehangs in the balance, state legislatures across the country have passed some of the most extreme abortion bills ever seen. While states like New York and Illinois have swept away abortion restrictions, other states like Ohio and Alabama have passed abortion bans that could provoke the overturning of Roe. In New Mexico, this past legislative session, pro-life legislators from both parties put partisan politics aside and crossed the aisle to defeat the radical pro-abortion lobby's attempt to overturn settled law in New Mexico. New Mexico representatives and senators defeated HB-51 and upheld a criminal abortion law that was passed by the state legislature in 1969. If the criminal abortion law was currently being enforced, New Mexico would not be known as the Late-Term Abortion Capital of the world.

On Saturday, September 14, local residents will gather to remind the community that abortion is not just a political issue. They will be marking the seventh annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children with a graveside memorial service at 10:00AM at Sandia Memory Garden (9500 San Pedro Drive NE Albuquerque, NM 87113).

“Too often, abortion is just seen as a political issue or a matter of personal choice, but abortion has real victims: the 60 million American children who have lost their lives to abortion since 1973,” said Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico, one of the organizers of the Day of Remembrance in Albuquerque. “In fact, you may be surprised to learn that some of those victims have been buried right here in Albuquerque.” ​

Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, director of Life Ministries US will share the background on the gravesite and the two babies that are buried here.

Shaver commented, “Visiting the graves of aborted children really puts these legislative battles into perspective. All the protests on one side and celebrations on the other, all the threatened boycotts and political posturing—none of it seems to matter when you realize that actual victims of abortion are buried right beneath your feet. These tiny children were never born. Never learned to walk. Never had a first day of school. They were never even given names by their parents so we the pro-life community give them their names and remember them.”

Of the 60 million victims of abortion since Roe v. Wadewas handed down in 1973, only a tiny fraction have received a proper burial, at gravesites scattered throughout the country. But all of them will be mourned on September 14 during memorial services at those gravesites and dozens of other memorial markers set up in their honor.

The memorial service on Saturday, in Albuquerque, will include prayer and messages led by:

• Pastor Gary Cowan of Calvary Chapel East
• Karen Murchison of Connection Church
• Fr. Stephen Imbarrato of Life Ministries US

Special guest speakers include former Lieutenant Governor candidate Michelle Garcia Holmes & Michael Hendricks who has just announced his candidacy for New Mexico House District 20.

The Day of Remembrance is being organized by three national pro-life groups—Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Priests for Life and the Pro-Life Action League—to humanize the unborn victims of abortion by raising awareness of their burial places. The bodies of tens of thousands of aborted children have been retrieved from trash bins, landfills and other locations and buried at more than 50 gravesites across the country.

At AbortionMemorials.com, visitors can learn the stories of how many of these children were killed, how they were found, and the details of their burial. The website also lists hundreds of memorial sites dedicated to the victims of abortion throughout the United States.

The first annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children was held in September 2013 to mark the 25th anniversary of the burial of several hundred abortion victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Memorial services were held at 38 burial places of abortion victims nationwide, as well as scores of other memorial sites dedicated to these children. The Day of Remembrance is now held annually on the second Saturday in September.

See also AbortionMemorials.com and learn more about Saturday's event hosted in Albuquerque at AbortionFreeNM.com