About 100 opponents of abortion prayed outside the gates of Parliament on Thursday for an end to a practice they say has killed 600 000 foetuses in South Africa over the last ten years.
The demonstration was organised by the Christian Action Network (CAN) to mark the anniversary of the date — February 1 1997 — when abortion on demand became legal in this country.
The protesters, who included women wheeling children in pushchairs, had earlier marched through the centre of Cape Town led by a grey hearse.
They laid crosses, flowers and a small white coffin in front of the railings of Parliament, where they joined in prayer against ”this abortion holocaust”, and in support of doctors and nurses under pressure to ”pervert their healing profession” by conducting abortions.
”Our hands are dirty, forgive us, God,” said pastor Tim Makamu of His People Church. ”Father, heal us from sin … heal us God from murdering children … reverse this curse on our land.”
CAN said in a statement that it had placed obituary notices in newspapers in memory of all foetuses killed by abortion since 1997 and that the day would come when future generations looked back on abortion with the same revulsion as the ”Communist Holocausts of the Soviet Union, Red China, Cambodia and Rwanda”.
CAN national coordinator Taryn Hodgson said she was disappointed at the turnout; the network had been able to summon three thousand people for previous marches.
”But we do realise some people may be at work or whatever, and they couldn’t be here. But we do believe that in future many more Christians will attend.”
Hodgson said CAN believed every abortion was murder ”and stops a beating heart”.
”I think the only case where it is valid is if the mother’s life is in danger.”
When the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act took effect in 1997, South Africa became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa in which women had the right to abortion on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. — Sapa