In 1995, however, a national memorial to the unborn was constructed in Chattanooga, Tenn., at the site of a former abortion clinic. The Pro-Life Majority Coalition of Chattanooga outbid the doctor of the Chattanooga Women's Clinic for the building in which the clinic was located when the landlords sold it as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The Chattanooga Women's Clinic was demolished and replaced with the pro-life Imago Dei Foundation's National Memorial for the Unborn in order to provide a place for emotional healing for those who had suffered the tragedy of an abortion. The memorial combines the stylistic elements and simplicity of both the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and Yad Veshem, a Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Hundreds of people visit the memorial to the unborn in Chattanooga each year.
Visitors come from all over the United States and Canada.
A wall containing more than 700 plaques to name the aborted marks the centerpiece of the memorial. Individuals place brass plates with new names on the wall daily. Cards and messages are left by mothers who come to the memorial to grieve for their aborted children and to find healing in their pilgrimage. Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano, the two plaintiffs in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton who now speak out prominently against abortion, both placed permanent markers at the site. With their small piece of artwork, each person was able to give tangible expression to the memory of a little one who, although never born, touched his or her life.