WATCH: UCT medical student thanks parents for allowing her to live

Conversations about the sanctity of life at the Students for Life stand on UCT upper campus this week (PHOTO: Facebook).

Shannon Williams, a first-year medical student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), this week shared a part of her life story that she has never disclosed publicly before — about a decision her parents took when she was in her mother’s womb “that’s the only reason I am here today”.

Speaking in a video clip [see below] made at a stand on campus manned by pro-life awareness group Students For Life (SFL) she said when she was a preborn baby of about three months a doctor told her parents she was a high-risk Downs Syndrome child and gave them the option to abort her. She said she was grateful they decided to love her any way.

Williams, of Cape Town, who says she gave her life to Christ at a school Christian camp three years ago, told Gateway News she loves to share the Gospel, but until this week had never publicly shared the story of her parents’ life-giving decision on her behalf.

- Advertisement -

Her parents had been trying to have a baby for seven or eight years and had all but give up when her mother fell pregnant with her, she said. When the doctors offered her parents the chance to abort her, they responded that they had been trying to have a child for so long that they were happy to receive her whatever way she was born.

- Advertisement -

“And by the grace of God I came out the way I am and now I am at UCT and I am quite grateful they did not abort,” she said.

A spokesman for SFL which has been on campus this week, raising awareness about protecting the right to life of the unborn, said Williams came across their stand and agreed to share her testimony which they then published on their Facebook page.

SFL has been taking a stand for the sanctity of life at UCT since 1993. In recent years the organisation has faced resistance from abortion advocates including the dismantling of their stand in 2017, stealing and destruction of pamphlets and posters, slander, threats and disruption of conversations. According to SFL, university security have frequently failed to take action against disrupters.

But SFL has continued to be a voice for a voiceless on campus by running abortion awareness campaigns for students and staff. It has also stood up for the rights of people such as SRC vice-chair Zizipho Pae who suffered harassment, threats and vandalism for her stand for marriage in 2015, and for pro-life doctor Jacques de Vos who has been denied the right to practice medicine for two years by the Health Professions Council of South Africa because he tried to save the life of a 19 week unborn baby from abortion.

- Advertisement -

UCT students who would like to join SFL may sign up online at https://studentsforlife.co.za/signup/

2 Comments

  1. Maye the students know about a
    w ut a similar organization to SFL in England PUC (Society for the protection of unborn babies
    established 1953)that SFL could engage with?

  2. The fact that Students for Life stand firm aginst persecution from abortion-bullies is valued by Jesus and His followers.

    23h THE PRO-LIFE SONG or RAP

    God of Justice, God of Love,
    twin these virtues from above,
    form them in this world below,
    that all people soon will show
    justice, love to all.

    Justice for the innocent,
    killed without their own consent,
    taken from their mother’s womb,
    taken from their cosy home,
    justice is denied.

    Love for helpless humankind,
    all their rights now undermined.
    Adult power is cruel and wild
    when it’s used against a child ~
    love evaporates.

    God of Justice, God of Love,
    You in Christ came from above.
    Mary had the courage to
    see her pregnancy right through ~
    Loving Justice won!

    Words and Melody: Hugh G Wetmore (c) 2003
    Metre: 77775 Tune: Pro-life arranged by H Hudson *CD 11.16 or as a RAP or a Poem
    request sheet music from wetmore@singingtheword.co.za