Huge ‘God Bless Abortions’ banner draped across 7-story Christ of the Ozarks statue

Residents in Arkansas woke up Friday to the famous Christ of the Ozarks statue draped with a massive banner that read “God Bless Abortions.”

Indecline, an activist group that took responsibility for hanging the banner, wrote on Instagram they are not ”pro-choice or anti-life,” but sent the message as a way of saying “abortion is a... miracle worth saving.”

The 65-foot statue is located in Eureka Springs on Magnetic Mountain. It’s one of five known giant statues of Christ in the world, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The statue can been seen from 20 miles away.

“In Arkansas, there is only one 65-foot statue of Jesus. There is also only one abortion clinic,” Indecline wrote. “No professional sports teams. Just a bunch of angry men with no outlets, writing outrageous laws about vaginas. That, and the second highest rate (by state) of infant mortality. It’s hard to see how ‘pro-life’ can be so myopic in its vision of what life is.”

In March, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a new law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, the Associated Press reported. The law does not provide exceptions for people who were impregnated through rape or incest.

The banner was hung in “direct response” to attempts being made in Arkansas and throughout the country to ban abortions, Indecline said in a statement to McClatchy News.

“When people have strong beliefs about decisions that don’t affect them, those beliefs are worth questioning,” the activist group wrote on Instagram. “We are just here to ask those questions. Perhaps they get us farther than beliefs. And maybe Jesus never intended to be a statue, nor a billboard. But then again, he’s not supposed to be pro-choice, so we guess he’ll just have to live with it.”

Indecline describes themselves as an activist art collective that focuses on “social, ecological and economical injustices carried out by American and international governments, corporations and law enforcement agencies.”

Pictures the group posted on Instagram show them hanging the banner overnight Thursday. Indecline said it disguised themselves as a construction crew and hung up the banner before sunrise.

Police in Eureka Springs have not yet commented on the stunt.

This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Huge ‘God Bless Abortions’ banner draped across 7-story Christ of the Ozarks statue."