April 14, 2026

Mass Citizens for Life holds visual memorial for the unborn at UMass

REGIONAL
Story and photo by Carolee McGrath

AMHERST – Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) held the first ever Truth About Choice memorial at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Sunday, April 12 on the South Lawn. Using thousands of fetal models, the visual memorial represented the numbers of babies lost to abortion in 2024. Because of telehealth and medical abortions, the numbers in Massachusetts doubled in 2024. According to Mass.gov statistics, there were 24,355 abortions in the state in 2023. In 2024, the number jumped to 49,450. More than half of those abortions were performed on out of state residents. Thirty-one thousand of the abortions were medical abortions, or the abortion pill.

“This event is called Truth About Choice and it is designed to open the eyes of students on campus to the truth about abortion, to the truth about the choice that women are supposed to run toward. We are hoping that this visual of 49,000 babies will wake the students up to the humanity of the unborn,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of MCFL.

“We want people to know if a woman is facing a crisis pregnancy, if a girl is still a student in college, we will, the pro-life movement, will be there for her. We will provide resources for her if she wants to choose life. We know that 70 percent of women don’t want to choose abortion but they have abortions anyway, because they are alone. They have told us if one person was there for me, I wouldn’t have done it. We want students here to know that message,” she said.

A few pregnancy care representatives were at the event including Clearway Clinic, a pro-life medical center with two locations in Springfield and Worcester, and Branches Family Resource Center, with locations in Brattleboro, Vt. and now Greenfield.

“I am the director of Branches Family Resource Center. I am also a survivor of sex trafficking, so that’s what drives what I do and why I am so passionate about the life of a woman and the life of a child. Our mission is to save lives, to save souls,” said Jean Marie Davis, who has two sons. She said both of her children were conceived in rape when she was trafficked. She said those who were trafficking her tried to force her to have abortions. She shared her story with a group of protestors who were standing outside the memorial.

“They need to learn the facts first. I have been speaking to a few of them and they are not understanding. I come from this as a woman not being my body my choice. It’s actually women who are being raped and forced to have abortions. Let’s talk about those women. Let’s talk about what are we supposed to do with those women who are desperate and in need of help,” she said.

A pregnancy center in Vermont helped Davis with her second son.

“Eleven years ago, the pregnancy center saved my child and now he runs around and wants to be a chef, he wants to be a youth pastor. He comes along and helps me,” she said.

Students from the Newman Catholic Center on campus came to support the event.

“It was important for me to come especially on Divine Mercy Sunday because I think a lot of people don’t know the reality of what an abortion is and they choose to blindly believe in abortion because our society tells us that it’s something we should have,” said Clementine Mankoski, a junior at UMass majoring in public health. Mankoski, who came to the event right from Mass on campus, said she used to be in favor of abortion.

“People should be exposed to what a baby actually is. Hopefully, even if they don’t agree, maybe they will go home with a seed in their heart and start to rethink what it means to have an abortion and what defines a baby,” she said.

There was a police presence at the event. A few groups of protestors held signs and on occasion did a few chants. Someone did run into the memorial toppling a table during the event and then ran off. Maloney-Flynn said even though she knew there was going to be opposition, it was important to be there.

“Of course, we expected opposition. The fact that they are here today, some of them have engaged, some of them have asked amazing questions and that’s what we want. Even if they are seeing this at a distance, even if they are vocalizing one message, they are seeing another. They will carry that memory with them, so we are planting a seed here today,” said Maloney-Flynn.

The Knights of Columbus Amherst Council 1619 sponsored the event.

A video version of this story will be featured on Saturday’s edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22NEWS.