ANTI-ABORTION GROUP PLANS TO ERECT 3,400 CROSSES

A local pro-life group plans to erect 3,400 crosses on land near Interstate 55 to mark the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

The group, SEMO Lifesavers, had hoped to erect the crosses last week, but snow, ice and freezing temperatures delayed the event.

"You can't really get them in the ground right now," said Connie Drury of Kelso, who heads up the group.

The group had originally intended to hold a prayer service in the cross-filled field on Saturday, which was the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision.

Plans call for the white, 1-by-2-foot crosses to be placed on land owned by businessman Bob Drury, just north of Bluff City Beer Co., situated southwest of the Interstate 55 and Route K intersection.

But the winter weather has prompted a change in plans, Connie Drury said. The prayer service will now be held a week later, this Saturday, at 4 p.m. The event is open to the public.

She said the crosses in the "Cemetery of the Innocent" symbolize the 4,400 abortions performed every day in this nation.

"The whole idea is to wake people up to how many abortions go on on a daily basis," said David Jansen of Jackson, another member of the anti-abortion group.

In addition to the crosses, an 8-by-16-foot sign will make that message clear. The sign, in red and black letters, reads: "Abortion stops a beating heart 4,400 times a day."

For Jansen and other pro-lifers, abortion means murder. "It's killing kids," he said.

SEMO Lifesavers is affiliated with the Missouri Right to Life organization. The local chapter has about 40 to 50 members in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding region.

There have been Missouri Right to Life members in the region for years, but the SEMO Lifesavers group only organized last April, Drury said.

"Right now we are trying to get people to open their eyes back up," she said. "It seems like they have just kind of turned their backs on it and said, `It is an old issue, forget it.'"

Drury said she doesn't believe the pro-life movement has lost steam. The election of Bill Clinton as president has only made anti-abortion groups worker harder, she maintained. Clinton favors abortion rights.

"It's a concern," said Drury. "I think it is more of a challenge than it was before, when we had a president on our side," she added, referring to Clinton's predecessor, George Bush.

Drury said the pro-life movement nationally has been hurt in recent years by the shooting of an abortion-clinic doctor and bombings of clinics, actions attributed to militant abortion foes.

"They (citizens) have seen a lot of groups as very radical and violent," she said.

"That is not our objective," she said. "We want to take a stance and we want to make it loving."

"We are not out to promote violence," agreed Jansen. "We are just trying to open people's eyes to what is going on."