Since the U.S. Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973, more than 62 million abortions have been performed.

To mourn the loss of those lives, Sen. Jake Merrick, R-Yukon, and Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont, have filed Senate Concurrent Resolution 14.

“It’s a common practice in our country to have special days or fly flags at half-staff to mourn the loss of great Americans,” Merrick said. “We want to do both in recognition and honor of the millions of children whose freedoms and lives have been taken from them so brutally. They’ll never have the opportunity to be great because they’ll never get to pursue their dreams or fulfill their destinies. For that tremendous loss, we will take time on the anniversary of that awful day when abortion was made legal to mourn their sweet souls.”

SCR 14 seeks to recognize Jan. 22 as the Day of Tears in Oklahoma and encourage Oklahomans to lower their flags to half-staff in mourning of the infant lives lost.

“It’s heartbreaking that abortion is legal in our country, and to think of the millions of lives that have been ended is just unimaginable,” Crosswhite Hader said.

“To put this into perspective, around one million American soldiers have died in combat since the Revolutionary War, which was nearly 250 years ago, and we have thousands of monuments and holidays in those men and women’s honor. Why not do the same for the more than 62 million children who never got to take their first breath?”