Bishop blesses memorial garden

Published September 15, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor blessed the Arkansas Memorial Garden for the Unborn Sept. 4 at the Life Center in Little Rock. The garden is a public outreach of Father Thomas Keller’s Life Center, Arkansas Right to Life and the Rachel Memorial Foundation to remember unborn children who have died through abortion or natural causes.

The garden was created and designed by Joe Barnett of Little Rock Land Design and will be maintained by Arkansas Right to Life and the Life Center. Father Keller established the Life Center in 1995 to promote the protection of human life, spiritual, emotional and mental life and physical health. The Life Center is the home of the state office of Arkansas Right to Life, the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.

The Rachel Memorial Foundation placed a plaque in the garden to remember the more than 60,000 babies who were aborted in Pulaski County from 1973 to 2014. Its first memorial is located at St. Gabriel Anglican Church in Springdale to remember the thousands aborted in Washington County.

Carrie Jones of White Hall told those at the blessing what the garden meant to her. She aborted a child about 14 years ago at the former abortion clinic next to the Life Center.

“My life changed that day and it changed for the worse,” she said. “For me the garden symbolizes a choice … so coming here can be a little painful. When I come here I feel I am enveloped with God’s love. I come here to remember my baby.”