Each month we will offer a list of action ideas so you can defend, honor, and celebrate Life in your churches and communities on our Take Action page. This month, we are looking at memorializing the unborn.

When family members or friends die there are funerals, memorial services, or graveside internments to help us mourn and reminisce about our loved ones. However, when a child dies in an abortion, parents and family have no body to bury and no grave to visit. The parents of an aborted child often carry this dark grief as a secret, alone and afraid of the judgement of others, and grandparents and siblings of an aborted child do not know how to grieve or honor them. People who have lost a child to a miscarriage can even find that sometimes those in the Church can be uncomfortable and uncertain of what to say or what to do. This makes a difficult grieving process even more challenging.

A way to help grieving parents or family members is to memorialize these children lost to abortion or miscarriage. Memorializing a child is more than simply acknowledging that someone existed; it gives dignity to the lost child and provides a visual, perhaps even physical, reminder of a life lost. But, most importantly, it provides the grieving families the chance to honor these children as human beings, as well as mourn and express their own loss. Only when they are given the opportunity to grieve can parents and families find peace and then, ultimately, healing. If the Church indeed believes that all lives are sacred and that life begins at conception, we as a people of God need to reach out to these hurting parents and families.

Action Ideas:

1. Plant a tree or small garden on the church grounds with a plaque to commemorate children lost to abortion. Host a service to introduce this as a safe place of mourning for the community.
2. Hold a memorial service for children lost to abortion or miscarriage. Light candles in honor of the unborn children. Liturgies are available on AFL’s website.
3. Ask women to anonymously write the name and due date of their child on a slip of paper and put into a basket. Let them know you or a prayer team will be praying for them during the difficult anniversary period.

Resources:

1. Create a memorial for a child lost to abortion or miscarriage online at Unborn Memorials.
2. Find a gravesite or memorial that honors children lost to abortion in your area. Attend or lead a service on the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children on September 8th, 2018

Written by AFL Administrator Robin Ferguson