South African Christians Call Legalized Abortion a National Disgrace

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A Christian group in South Africa has organized a demonstration on the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s legalization of abortion on demand.

Christian Action Network will lead a funeral procession on Thursday in memory of the reported 539,010 babies aborted in South Africa since the country legalized abortion on Feb. 1, 1997.

“Abortion is a national disgrace,” said Taryn Hodgson, national coordinator of the Christian Action Network, in a statement Tuesday. “The murder of over half a million babies is nothing less than a holocaust. We are literally killing off our next generation.”

South Africa is known to have one of the most liberal governments in the world. In 1997, South Africa was the only country in the world to legalize abortion on demand. Recently, the country also legalized same-sex “marriage,” making it the first in Africa to pass the controversial law and only the fifth in the world.

Many Christians in South Africa will observe Feb. 1 as a National Day of Repentance “for the national sin of abortion,” according to Christian Action Network. Marchers in the funeral procession will carry small coffins and crosses and conclude with a Prayer vigil outside the gates of parliament.

Last week, American pro-lifers observed the 34th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in the United States. Rallies and demonstrations attended by tens of thousands of people against abortion took place throughout the nation from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.

American Christians showed a strong turnout for the rallies as is expected for the South African anti-abortion demonstrations this week on Thursday through Sunday.