I urge fellow Mississippians to vote “for” Amendment 26, the Personhood Amendment, on Nov. 8. Its passage would expand legal protection to living human beings not yet born.

I advocate this position because surgical and chemical abortion kills human beings and is abusive to pregnant mothers physically, emotionally and spiritually.

In addition to my knowledge of basic biology/embryology and the historical Christian ethic of the sacredness of all human life, I speak as one who was adopted from an orphanage in 1943 after having been abandoned soon after birth.

I speak, also, from the unique perspective of a veteran “sidewalk counselor,” trying to help pregnant mothers and their companions choose life as they enter Mississippi’s abortion centers. I have dedicated about 10 hours per week for more than 25 years to this ministry.

It has been an experience. I have been overjoyed at the thousands of times I have seen mothers let their unborn babies continue to live, often with the help and support of the pro-life community. However, I have shed many tears with mothers and their companions who chose death as a “solution” to their crisis pregnancies.

What I have NOT seen is a mother gleefully exiting the center after undergoing an abortion appearing “emancipated.” We know the devastation that will follow.

What is the purpose of government? The first purpose of civil government is to protect its innocent citizens, especially those in the dawn and dusk of life. Who is more innocent and helpless than today’s unborn babies? In order to give God a reason to hear our prayers and heal our land, the killing of the holy innocents must end! Mississippians, we are better than this.

C. Roy McMillan

Jackson