(This essay appeared as an op-ed piece in The Register-Guard, January 22, 1998.)

Many years ago I gave birth to our only son, Rodney. Rodney was two months premature, weighed a little over three pounds, and lived only two days. He was buried in a lovely green cemetery, marked by a headstone informing the world of his name, birth and death date. My husband and I grieved at his graveside, supported by family and friends. Flowers were lovingly placed at the graveside. A minister encouraged us with words from Scripture.

As sorrowful as Rodney's death was, he was in many ways fortunate. He was able to be openly grieved, to be remembered, to have his parents discuss what he meant to them and who he may have grown up to be. He was able to be loved and missed.

This past Sunday, at the 25th year memorial rally of Roe vs. Wade, over 1,000 pro-lifers gathered in Salem to grieve the deaths of more than 300,000 Oregon babies who have not, in most cases, had the honor of being openly grieved, loved and missed. They gathered to mourn the helpless little ones destined for the refuse bin who have been wrenched from their mothers' wombs by an abortionist's instrument. They gathered to tell the world that abortion does not end a "potential life" or take the life of an "unwanted child," but instead takes the life of a uniquely precious child who has love both to give and receive.

Those who gathered at the Oregon Capitol did not stand alone. In rallies across the nation, hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers unite for the same purpose, grieving the more than 36 million babies who have died since Roe vs. Wade.

Abortion sets a mother and her child in adversarial roles, one ending up dead and the other left suffering silently and alone. In the words of Mother Theresa, "... the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? ... Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

After 25 years of legalized abortion, are we any better off as a nation? Abortion, once justified for such difficult circumstances as rape and incest, is now justified for the do-it-at-home RU486 pill and the brain-suction partial birth abortion. Are we then surprised when, between dances, a teen-ager delivers a baby in a toilet on prom night; a newborn is left dead in a Salem parking lot, a Madras teen-ager is convicted of negligent homicide in the death of her newborn? Child abuse is rampant. There is a definite connection.

Not only do we mourn 300,000 Oregon abortion victims, we also mourn the lost conscience of a nation.