A funeral for what pro-life activists say was a seven-week-old aborted baby they named Michael-Gabrielle was held on Saturday in Green Oak Township.

Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, a national anti-abortion organization locally based in South Lyon, estimated that about 150 people attended the mass celebrated by Fr. John Rocus at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church and followed by a burial. Miller said the burial was the first in Livingston County for an aborted fetus.

"When we placed his or her body in the earth it was the only work of mercy this aborted human will ever know," Miller said. "And when we stand at the grave we commit ourselves to fight for a culture of life and an end to abortion.”

The aborted fetus was one of 15 in jars found by police in the trunk of Michael Roth's impounded car after he struck a pedestrian in September of 2015 in West Bloomfield Township. Police also found medications in the vehicle that were stolen from an Eastpointe abortion clinic where Roth had worked on occasion.

Casimir Miarka, administrator for the Oakland County Medical Examiner's office, said law enforcement brought the jars found in Roth's vehicle to her office on Oct. 8, 2015 for identification of the contents. He said the case did not fall under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner's office, which investigates and determines cause and manner of death in any violent, sudden, unexpected, suspicious or otherwise unexplained death.

"We deal with someone who has taken a breath and then passes," Miarka said. "Law enforcement brought it here so we could see what they were."

According to the medical examiner's report, Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic examined the tissue specimens and determined them to be products of conception.

Roth was originally charged with possession with intent to deliver schedule 2 narcotic Fentanyl, six counts of identity theft and three counts of larceny in a building. He was also charged with violating Michigan's public health code.

Roth pleaded no contest in October 2017 to three counts of larceny from a building and was sentenced to 18 months probation. Additionally, in a consent agreement with the state Board of Medicine, his license to practice medicine was suspended for one year and he was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

The jars and their contents were held by the medical examiner's office until the Michian Attorney General's office instructed them to be released to the Borek-Jennings Funeral Home in the Village of Hamburg in August.

Todd Borek, funeral home director, said he took the aborted babies into his care in August and kept them until he was able to facilitate their burials on behalf of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, which had negotiated the release with the attorney general's office.

Earlier this month, Borek was present as 14 of the aborted babies were buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, and he also attended the burial of the 15th in Green Oak Township on Saturday.

"I am very pro-life and want to give a dignified burial, even if there is no next of kin," Borek said. "It's a privilege to help in any way."

A granite marker will be installed at the Holy Spirit Cemetery, engraved with the name Michael-Gabrielle, a designation as a victim of abortion and a verse from the book of Revelation, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes."

Miller said the burial symbolizes justice and shows the world human life is sacred.

"That grave is an indictment of our country that allows these innocent completely helpless human beings to be killed with sanction of law," Miller said. "I want to see Roe versus Wade reversed and laws put in place that recognize the value of every human being from the moment of conception."

A little more than 638,000 abortions were performed in the U.S. in 2015, the latest year for which data is available, according to a November report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That number is the lowest since abortion was legalized in 1973 through the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The CDC's report also shows that the total number of abortions decreased by 24% from 2006-2015.

Ruth Lednicer, director of communications for Planned Parenthood of Michigan, believes the reason for the decrease in abortions is due to increased access to birth control and better sex education. She also believes that a mandate in the Affordable Care Act requiring insurance companies to include coverage for birth control with no co-pay had a positive effect.

"The abortion rate overall is falling, but it's still a legal, constitutionally protected right," Lednicer said.

"I would encourage people devoting their efforts to attending this burial to devote that same energy to preventing unintended pregnancies – through offering people access to fully comprehensive sex education and access to birth control."