About 800 people from all walks of life participated in the 2017 March for Life in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal on October 1.
Shortly before the annual pro-life march in the vicinity of Gateway, several speakers delivered short, impactful speeches.
Pastor Rusty Thomas from Texas, USA, stated adamantly that abortion-on-demand is a holocaust that should be fought at all levels of society.
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Pastor Xolani Klaas told the gathering how his mother resisted pressure to abort him after she returned to the Eastern Cape when she became pregnant after she was raped some 45 years ago while seeking work in Johannesburg. He said his grandmother advised the family not to abort him, saying he might have an important role to play in the future — possible even becoming the president. Today Klaas is a respected pastor and pro-life speaker.
Melissa Hertz from Cape Town told the marchers she had lived a hectic life as a young person. She became pregnant as a teenager and aborted the child. Later she settled, married and gave birth to three much-cherished children. She said she experienced post abortion syndrome (PAS) — a serious, long lasting, mental health problem as a result of her abortion. ( View her testimony on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Yxi-iFTifx0)
The marchers, including children, teens and elderly people from different race and church backgrounds, walked 4km around the Gateway shopping mall.
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Describing the event as a great success, the organisers, National Alliance for Life (NAL) said the annual march aimed to overcome passivity in society and to rally people, organisations and churches to demand the right of unborn persons to full protection of the law.
The annual march has succeeded in raising awareness over the years and each year saw more interest from organisations and the media, said the NAL.
Science has proved that life starts at fertilisation, with the very first cell containing all the information that makes the embryo a new, unique living human being, says an NAL press release about the march.
“The embryo is a person, containing all the genetic information about the hair and eye colour, the shoe size, how tall that person will be, whether they will be sportier or more academic or both, etc. It will always be the weakest and most vulnerable of society that are taken advantage of and that is also true for an unborn baby. No human being should have the right to decide on whether another’s life should be taken or not in order to solve a social problem. They are a special creation with a significant purpose that needs be respected,” says the NAL.
