Ideas pitched for abortion memorial
Wall of plants, number-bearing monument among proposals for Capitol
The Arkansas’ Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission has received several proposals for the design for a new monument on state Capitol grounds authorized under a 2023 state law to commemorate “unborn children aborted” after the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortions across the nation.
The proposals range from a “living wall” monument adorned with plants in a “celebration of life,” to a monument remembering the number of lives lost to abortion in Arkansas and a monument showing the number of children in foster care in the United States, Commission Chairman Michael Harry told the commission Tuesday as commissoners were presented with slides of several proposals for the monument’s design.
“I just wanted to give you a first glimpse of what we have received as far as submissions go,” he told the commission.
Harry said commissioners would receive more information about these proposals for the design of the monument later this week and they’ll start weighing the proposals during their Dec. 12 meeting.
He said he also would submit proposed site locations for the monument on the state Capitol grounds for the Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to consider during their next meeting.
“Now that the Supreme Court [building project] is pretty much finishing up, we’ll have a better idea of what that area of Capitol grounds looks like,” Harry said.
The proposed monument locations “might give us a better idea on what statue fits best in these proposed locations and kind of go from there,” he said. “Maybe we can get a better idea of where the monument will be located.”
On June 24, 2022, then-Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed a certificate implementing a 2019 law that bans abortions in Arkansas except to save the
vlife of the mother in a medical emergency, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion across the nation.
The proposals submitted for designs of the monument included:
■ A proposal from Arkansas Right to Life Executive Director Rose Mimms for a monument that would remember the number of lives lost in Arkansas from legal abortion under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe. vs. Wade from Jan. 22, 1973-June 24, 2022, and state that it’s the policy of Arkansas to protect every unborn child from the moment of conception until birth as permitted by the federal constitution, citing Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution.
Mimms said in an email to Harry the design by graphic artist Stacy Fields was used during the legislative session and she wants the design to be considered by the commission.
■ A proposal from Lakey Goff for the “Living Wall Monument to honor God, the Creator & the unborn. “Living walls are healing, innovative and inspiring,” Goff wrote in an email to Harry.
■ A proposal from Deborah Feiste for a monument that states that 424,000 children are currently in foster care in the United States.
She wrote in an email to Harry that “This work is a ‘relic’ displaying the uncomfortable truth of who truly
suffers in a society which lacks foresight. The work is to present a visual history in which to engage the audience.
To bring everyone’s attention the end result is 424,000 children are currently in foster care in the United States and the facts that need to be posted along with any moment to the unborn.”
■ A proposal from Cheryl Augustine for a bronze monument with “‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,’ ” written below it. Augustine is the visitor services coordinator in the secretary of state’s office.
■ A proposal from Ron Moore for a monument called the “Children’s Memorial Statue.”
■ A proposal from Richmond, Va., architect Erik Bootsma and sculptor Andrew Smith of South Bend, Ind., for “The Tomb of the Unborn Arkansan.”
■ A proposal from Veronica Benedict for a monument. Her husband Nicholas Benedict wrote in an email to Harry that “This is my wife’s drawing. … She gave me permission to share this drawing made some time ago and would love for it to glorify God as a monument in the state of Arkansas.”
■ Two proposals submitted by Fort Lauderdale, Fla., artist Nilda Comas, who wrote that she is interested in being considered for the proposed Monument to the Unborn.
“For many years, I’ve been interested in a large monument like this,” Comas wrote in an email to Harry.
Officials in the secretary of state’s office sought designs for the new monument on state Capitol grounds. The deadline for interested artists and designers to submit designs to the secretary of state’s office was through the close of business Sept. 30.
Act 310 of 2023 authorizes Republican Secretary of State John Thurston to permit and arrange placement on Capitol grounds of a “monument to the unborn.”
The Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission will oversee the selection of the artist and the design of the monument with input from “pro-life groups in Arkansas,” and the secretary of state will have final approval of the selected artist and design, according to Thurston’s office.
After approval of the artist and design, the secretary of state will be required to arrange for the construction, placement and dedication of the monument on the state Capitol grounds by private entities at no expense to the state under Act 310, sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton.
During the regular session earlier this year, Hammer told the Arkansas Senate his aim is for the proposed monument to be tastefully done. There also are women who have regretted their abortions, he said.
He said he hopes people who would see the monument would remember a chapter in the state’s history in which “so many babies were aborted.
“It will give us an opportunity to hopefully fight to make sure that that history is never repeated,” Hammer told the Senate.