We are commanded to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. In 1959, my mother, Ingrid Hammond, was pregnant with me and she is advised by a gynaecologist at St Joseph's Hospital, which today is Vincent Pilotti's in Cape Town, to abort me. because my mother had been taking thalidomide tablets, which was the wonder drug that protected you from morning sickness and suppressed all those symptoms. But as the hysteria grew, as more and more babies, in the end hundreds of thousands were born, deformed without arms, legs, and eyes in some cases, they not only permitted abortions, but they were recommending abortions in the case of mothers who were taking the obviously deforming drug thalidomide. So my mother, being a lifelong nurse who had received the National Award for Nursing in England by Harold Macmillan, presented that. She was, there's even a picture of her being given the award by Harold Macmillan, the British Prime Minister who was famous for the Winds of Change speech. My mother was serious about the Florence Nightingale pledge, which included doing no harm to your patient and caring for the patient's welfare. And my mother, in fact, she lived for crises and emergencies. I remember my mother coming home sometimes saying, my day is not complete if I haven't seen blood. I think she was often disappointed that none of her children were interested in medicine and didn't follow into nursing. She kept telling me she wanted me to be a medical doctor and you've got surgeon's fingers and I think she was extremely disappointed when I wasted my life in missions, but she did come to the Lord later. So my mother called for a chaplain to come in the hospital. She still doesn't know whether it was a Catholic or Protestant chaplain. But a chaplain came, prayed for her, prayed for the baby. And as you can see, I've got my hands, my eyes, my legs. And so God was merciful and gracious. Praise God that she chose life. The scripture says, for you created indeed. You created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. And it's so important for us to be true to these principles. Some years ago, I was debating the head of the Abortion Rights Action Group, Dr. Marge Dyer. We used to call her Dr. Death. Dr. Marge Dyer at Stanbosch University and I mentioned this testimony and a very large smile came across her face. I debated Marge Dyer many a time, it was the only time I ever saw a smile. Big smile as I mentioned that my mother almost aborted her and she said audibly for everyone in the auditorium to hear, what a pity she didn't. Quite shocking that a medical doctor could take delight at the thought of an abortion. So pro-choice, that's a lie. Babies don't choose to die. And they say they're pro-choice, but they're not really pro-choice, as I noticed. Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say we knew nothing about this, does not he who waves the harp perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will you not repay each one according to what he has done? Now this passage in Proverbs 24 is something of a threat. God guards your life. The Lord decides when and how you die. Do you really want to anger God by showing contempt to the right to life of others? And so this is a bit of a threat. God weighs your heart. He guards your life. And what we sow is what we reap. And the way we treat the right to life of others is how our lives will be treated. Have you noticed how the generation that legalized abortion are the generation who have been euthanized? I mean, just take the Netherlands, for example, where euthanasia is legal and where state doctors have decided on an average year to euthanize 1,000 patients without the patient's request or the patient's relatives even requesting it. So the people who disrespect the rights of life of the youngest and the most vulnerable are the ones who could get euthanized by some state doctor's arbitrary decision one day. What we sow is what we reap. And yes, will he not repay each one to what he has done? At a meeting in Athlone in Cape Town, I heard Ronald Sider, famous American author, Ronald Sider, give his support for the one-child policy of Red China. Communist China for many years had this one child policy, you could only have one child. And what happened? Those who had more than one child, the child was either infanticided or they sterilised the people. There was all kinds of pressure. You could only have one child and then in many families they started reporting stillbirths if it was a girl being born. And China's got a massive imbalance of far too many males and far too few females because many families decide to strangle or smother or drown the baby girl at birth that they could have another child because they wanted a male child. So where's the choice there? For a Christian evangelical author to stand up and say we support the one-child policy of Red China. Well, that's no choice at all. That's just pro-abortion. That's pro-death. That's not pro-choice in any sense. And that's why the scripture tells us, do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land. Atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. It's an extremely serious thing to allow an innocent person to die. and to fail to stand up for the innocent. That is one reason why we march to Parliament every year and we make a stand at the gates of Parliament because the scripture says that when innocent blood is shed and when you cannot bring to justice the criminal responsible, the leaders of the city, the elders should go to the gates of the city and make clear this murder was not done in our sight, we knew nothing about it, we had no part in this. or God will judge the entire nation. A curse comes upon a nation where innocent blood is shed. We can sing in corsy, sickly Africa all we like. God will not bless a country that murders its babies. How can God bless a country that kills its own unborn? So shame upon us there and shame upon these leaders As our brother said in the devotions, shame upon those who've got a greater responsibility, the church leaders, the religious leaders, who are silent, who are cowards, who refuse to make a stand. In 1987, at Kirchentag in Frankfurt, Germany, I saw a pro-abortion demonstration. It was quite disgusting. The Kirchentag, which was run by the World Lutheran Federation, would not allow the pro-lifers to have a stall inside the Kirchentag facilities. They were too controversial. So the eight pro-life groups in Germany were denied an opportunity to be represented at this Kirchentag. But I can tell you who were there, not only pro-abortion groups, there were also terrorist groups, there was Sandinista, Swampo, ANC, they all had desks there. The LGBTQ crowd had it, pro-homosexuality and so on. They had stalls, they weren't controversial apparently. So the pro-lifers had a demonstration outside the gates of the Kirshentod venue, and there was a pro-abortion counter-demonstration within the gates of Kirshentod. And one of the banners that I saw, quite shocking, oh Dr. Ernst, what a pity your mother didn't abort you. Dr. Ernst, presumably a leader in the pro-life movements in Germany. But then there was an even worse, even more shocking anti-life banner there. If only Mary had had an abortion, we wouldn't have these problems today. At a church conference, that's not pro-choice, that's pro-abortion, that's not just pro-abortion, that's pro-death, that's actually anti-Christ, not just anti-life, but anti-Christ. I've seen pictures of that at other places where somebody put up banners, if only Mary had had an abortion. in America as well as England. So this is a sentiment quite a few people have. The biggest curse that ever happened in the world was the birth of Jesus Christ according to some of these people. If only Christ hadn't been born we wouldn't have these Christians, we wouldn't have these pro-lifers. What a wonderful world this would be if Mary had had an abortion. Just think about that. Well, there's a book written, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, which I think is the right book to read, by Dr. James Kennedy, pointing out everything good in our society, absolutely everything good, comes from Jesus Christ and his teachings. Everything from hospitals to schools, literacy, all the different things we take for granted, the abolition of slavery, the ending of cannibalism, human sacrificing, it all came from the teaching and the example of Jesus Christ and his followers. So in fact, life wouldn't even be worth living, assuming we'd even be alive, if Jesus had not been born. But there's some people who would like to wish Jesus away. Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will make a stand for me against the workers of iniquity? we need Christians who are going to get some backbone. Martin Luther said that if we profess every truth except that point which is under attack at that moment. We're not confessing Christ, however boldly we might be professing him. For where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldiers proved. And to be steady in all the battlefront besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. We need to be faithful where the battle rages. And the right to life is such a key battle. It's the battle. But there's other battles today, too. And you can be deplatformed and accused of being hateful bigots if you say something like, well, there's only two genders, or marriage can only be between a man and a woman. And to think that something as basic as that can get you into trouble. But then we even got into trouble and were accused of being selfish when we wanted to breathe fresh air. Who would imagine when people didn't want to wear the muzzle, mask, grade, face diaper during the mask grade madness, lockdown, lunacy, salvation by vaccination, COVID cult, We had a church in Cape Town, Methodist church in Cape Town. They put up on their beautiful stone church on Greenpoint, I should say Greenmarket Square, lovely stone tower. They put down a big yellow banner. The blood of Jesus Christ cannot save you from COVID-19. Only a vaccination can. Get vaccinated now. Now that's such blasphemous garbage. It's not only balaclic, laughable, and stupid. But what they should have had is, no vaccine can save you from the fires of hell. Only the blood of Jesus can. That would have been more accurate. There's an anti-Christian element to the pro-abortion side. What we are facing at this stage is a phenomenal anti-Christian Hostility. In 1990, when my wife Lenora was pregnant and we were expecting our first child, we attended a pro-abortion rally in Cape Town, probably the first pro-abortion rally in our country's history. It was run by Dr. Marge Dyer of the Abortion Rights Action Group, and it was at Rondebosch Congregational Church, or Rondebosch Congregational Church, which is now the Union Church. Marge Dyer was promoting the legalisation of abortion on demand, and there was a shocking incident that I could never forget. A middle-aged woman stood up at the back and she said, 20 years ago I needed to have an abortion, but the apartheid laws wouldn't let me abort my baby. She said, And then she identified the young girl sitting next to her as her daughter and said, there's not a day that goes by in the last 20 years that I haven't regretted that I was denied the right to have a choice of my own body. And her daughter's sitting there nodding her head. It was bizarre, it was like you'd fallen through the rabbit hole and you were ending up there at Mad Hatter's tea party. The daughter agreeing, that reminds me of Chelsea Clinton, the Clinton's daughter. People have said, what do you get if you mix a communist with a lesbian? The answer is Chelsea. Anyway, so Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter Chelsea was thinking of playing her parental thing. that she regretted that her grandparents were denied the empowerment that grandparents had given her generation. And what she's saying is she's saying she wished her parents had been aborted, which maybe she was. Does that mean she didn't think it was worth her living alone? But that's just some of the stupid things you hear people say. So can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will never forget you, says the Lord.' Now you would have thought that a hypothetical question, could a mother really abandon her child? Well of course they do all the time. Rome was built by Romulus and Remus who were abandoned by their own mother and a she-wolf had more maternal instincts than the mother and a wolf raised Romulus and Remus and Rome was built by Romulus, hence the name. And yet Rome did not seem to learn a thing from this. Rome had a place outside every city where you could abandon your children, you could abandon babies, literally throw them to the wolves, and that was where the term throwing them to the wolves came from. Rome abandoned their children. And it said that the early church grew more by adopting of children than it did even from evangelism. Well, while I was studying at Theological Seminary, I had a very memorable supper with a married couple from the college. And over the meal in their home, my host disclosed that before they were married, they had a crisis pregnancy. And he was the youth leader at his church. And his future fiancee's girlfriend was pregnant. Her brother was high up in the denomination. In fact, he went to be president of the denomination. And her father was a very senior leader in the church as well. So it was decided that this was just too inconvenient, too embarrassing. She had to get an abortion. So her father, a senior leader in the church, put on a plane at Jansmatsepport to go off to England to have an abortion. And he prayed for journeying mercies as he sent his daughter to kill his grandchild. And she said over the supper, something died within me. I thought, yes, I would imagine something would die within you. Your father praying for journey mercies as you go off to kill his grandchild? If you wonder why churches are the mess they're in, look no further. How many ministers in our churches decided to rather abort the child because their respectability, their ministry was more important than that life, more important than life itself? I've got a great suspicion that there's a lot of that out there, because you wonder why most pastors are not preaching against pornography. I've spoken at youth rallies against pornography, and next thing you know, a long stream of kids coming wanting counsel, and one youth leader said, I never felt it was good or right, but because they never spoke about it from the pulpit, I thought it can't be that serious. But I've got youngsters in the youth group coming to me how to get free, and I don't know how to get free myself. And you wonder, well, why is this not being preached against? Why can you not speak from the pulpit against them? So yes, their sin is greater. Those who delivered you to me, Pilate said, our Lord said to Pilate, are guilty of a greater sin. And it is a terrible sin not to be steady on the battlefront where the battle rages. The cowardice, the compromise, the treachery, the treason of those people who meant to serve Christ who are as good as Judas, because they're selling the truth of the gospel and the lives of the unborn for less than 30 pieces for them. A greater condemnation will come to these religious leaders, guilty of cowardice. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with their blood. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people, so that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them over into the hands of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand." I'm sure many of you have seen the film Unplanned. We had the privilege of showing the Unplanned film as a premier in Cape Town and promoting it. But as my wife pointed out, the book is better. And it's always so. In the Unplanned book, we learned more. We learned that While she was the director of this abortion clinic that was murdering babies, she was a respected member of a local Presbyterian church. But the moment she became a pro-life activist, the church leaders ordered her to leave. You wonder about Abby Johnson. She could be an abortionist and be a member of a Presbyterian church. She could not be a pro-life activist. They told her to leave because she was bringing the church into disrepute and controversy. Why is the church in a mess? Why does revival tarry? How many churches do we have like that? Remember in the film one of the elements was a killer, Killer the Tiller, the third trimester abortionist who was killed. Where was he killed? In church. He was a deacon of a Lutheran church. And he was murdered at church, which of course is terrible. I mean, that just plays into the hands of the enemy. We don't take up their tactics. But the fact is, what was a church doing having a church leader? I think he was a deacon, is that correct? Killer, killer of the killer, killer of the killer. But how is that possible? That you can be an abortionist in a church, that's fine. You can be in leadership. But don't bring controversy to the church by being a pro-lifer. Now, that family that I mentioned, who's Family and all sides were high up in the denomination. I spoke in the church of this friend from college much later in life, and now his wife is sitting there with a baby on her lap. Now, I know people who've had abortions, greatly regret it, and speak against it, and use it as a ministry to oppose it. But on this occasion, they were mocking my pro-life stand and deliberately scorning the pro-life stand of African Christian Action. So they hadn't learned. They'd just gotten more embittered. There I was in a church fighting opposition from a pastor and his wife who used to be friends at college. But I knew, and they knew that I knew, that they'd aborted their baby and they thought hiding that is more important. Respectability and your ministry is more important than the lives of your own children. Can you imagine that the people who think like that? That is why their sin and their condemnation is so much greater. This is what the Lord said, your Redeemer who formed you in a womb. I am the Lord who has made all things. Sons are heritage from the Lord. Children are reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with the enemies in the gate. How terrible that we've got people who think that children are a curse, a burden, they're not a blessing. And if they're inconvenient and they come at the wrong time and they're gonna embarrass you in society, your embarrassment is too great. Your respectability, your testimony is more important than the life of that child. It's better to kill the child. That's why many people at church kill their babies because it is better to be a murderer than to be someone who is perceived as immoral. Abby Johnson said it was common for her to see children, young girls, on the operating table about to have their abortion, praying the rosary. That means the Catholic girls. Catholics, for whom you would think pro-life is absolutely unquestionable, they're on the operating table praying the rosary while they're waiting for the abortion to be done. And you wonder why our church is on a state that they're in. That's why the scripture says, rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering towards slaughter, which is what we try to do with the life chains and the Marches for Life and our sidewalk counselling and outside abortion clinics like Mary Stokes Abortion in downtown Cape Town. And we've had the joy of seeing people turned away at the last minute and people who've later given birth to a child, named the child after the sidewalk counsellor who talked them into keeping the child. But while we've been on the pavement trying to persuade people not to go to Mary Stokes, normally on a Saturday morning. Many a time we've seen it's not choice. Many times the girl wants to talk to you, but the father or the uncle or the boyfriend or the husband is forcing them in, dragging them in. You know, where's the woman's empowerment here? It's the un-choice. It's not choice at all. In many cases, the abortion is done against the will of the woman. It's been done under the coercion and pressure of some male member of the family. You can't even call them fathers or husbands or boyfriends or whatever they are. They're not worthy to name even a man. Because not every male is a man, not every man is a gentleman. Like not every girl is a woman, not every woman is a lady. There's standards here. These days they're trying to erode all of those things. When we think of our life chains, the question we've got to ask many of our friends is the words of Jesus. Could you not watch with me for one hour? You know, what we need is people who are going to be pro-life to every hour of the day throughout their life. But can we not get people to stand for one hour? a year to make a stand for life. We stand for life. How difficult is that? How much sacrifice is involved just to take one hour? We've got to teach our people, now choose life so that you and your children may live. We had a banner made, a scripture banner, with this verse from Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, outside Parliament, at the opening of Parliament, when Thabo Mbeki became President, 1999. We know Thabo Mbeki saw it. He passed right by it. Within minutes of him driving through the gates into Parliament, a group of, they looked like riot squad, but they were probably a SWAT team of the police, came out, full battle gear, confiscated this banner and took it inside and burned it. Now what is so offensive about this passage that President Thabembeke would send his police to confiscate and burn the scripture banner? Now choose life. How offensive is that? So that you and your children may live. What a horrible, hateful statement. Surely it must be burned. And that's the mentality of people in Parliament. I think we've got to take the words of Christine Anderson, the MEP, European Parliament, who said recently, the first thing to realize is your government is not concerned for your welfare. Government does not care about you. You cannot comply your way out of totalitarianism. You can only resist. I think that's some words of honesty said by a politician in the EU at that. You cannot comply yourself out of totalitarianism. When the government demands you to do something, she says, whatever they ask you to do, your answer's got to be no. Whatever it is the government wants, your response should be no, because resistance is the language of freedom. Now, this is someone whose father spent years in a concentration camp in the DDR in East Germany, knew how the Soviets and the Communists worked. So she's a voice of sanity in European Parliament saying, resist. It reminds us also of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, one of the greatest authors and poets in Russian history, the great Russian of the 20th century. And he said, the state is built upon lies. The pillar of the state is lies. And the best act of resistance you can do is to refuse to believe the lie, to refuse to repeat the lie, to refuse to applaud the lie. And he said, that is how the Soviet Union collapsed. The people stopped believing the lies, they stopped applauding the lies, they stopped repeating the lies. And that's how we defeat the globalist new world order that's telling us children are a burden, the world is overpopulated, we can't allow more children into the world. The most loving thing you can do for a child in your family is to kill it, said Margaret And so we've got to say no to these people. We've got to resist the lie that children are a burden and we've got to be stating children are a blessing. This idea that it's a curse to have children or it might be embarrassing or that it's an awkward time for us, this could embarrass us to have a child born at this time out of wedlock, no. Life is a blessing. Children are a blessing from the Lord. So this has to be the message that we communicate. Now we're living in a very visual world and so people need pictures. And praise God for those who produce some excellent pro-life films. For many people we are going to communicate this to them through films. So we have shown premieres of Unplanned, which is great. An unplanned shows the different types of abortion, including the chemical abortions, these do-it-yourself-at-home abortions, and I think that's a good expose of what a terrifying, horrible experience it is. And the lies, and they used words like, there'll be a gentle emptying of the uterus, and said, you know, where was the gentleman, who told him about the agony for how many weeks it was, and so on. Then there's Life Mark, which has come from the Kendrick brothers. we showed a premiere of that too. Life Mark is an excellent film which particularly promotes the adoption as a loving option. Roe v. Wade film, we also premiered that. Excellent film showing how Roe v. Wade was built on lies, the legalization of abortion in America and in South Africa was built upon lies, lies, and more lies. And to expose that helped also to prepare people for the victory which came thanks to Donald Trump and his Supreme Court justice nominations in America last year. And just recently, there's a new film from Living Waters, What Is It? referring to a baby, going on the streets asking people, well, what is it? And that's a brilliant evangelistic insight into the case against abortion. And we showed a premiere of that recently in Cape Town, too. So I strongly recommend you see these films, promote these films. Unplanned, life-mark, Roe v. Wade, what is it? We've brought some of our materials here. This is a Christian Action Newsletter celebrating 30 years of standing for life in Cape Town. And we've got our different marches for life, collages. Speak to it. Help yourself. These are free on the table here. And if you want to get our newsletters electronically, we can send it out by email. Because sadly, our post office has collapsed and is not doing its job anymore. Against human trafficking, we produced this Stop the Traffic leaflet recently, promoting also the Sound of Freedom film, which again, that's another part of the battle. When the Sound of Freedom film was making a big impact in America, we contacted Stoke Acorn, New Metro here in Cape Town, South Africa, asking, when you bring the film to South Africa? And they said, there's no market here. They've got no plan to bring the film. So we launched a campaign of people bombarding their social media with the demands, bring Sound of Freedom to South Africa. And it's come, and it's done very well here. So we promote other good films, like Trade of Innocence, which Mira Sorvino, starred in another true story based in Cambodia, and other of these films that are well worth promoting, exposing human trafficking, nefarious and so on. The testimony I gave of Abbey Johnson and how she was hounded out of a church, Presbyterian church, because she was pro-life but accepted when she was pro-abort, that testimony is in this unplanned indictment, Christian Action, that's available here, and also Christian Liberty Books, The catalogue is available on the table, too. Do help yourself. Some of the other books that are interesting and helpful, like the Ten Commandments. To preach a way through the Ten Commandments in churches is critical. People need to know God's law. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, that we can be justified by faith. Our churches need to know the law of God again and recognize that God is a holy God. God hates sin. And to take innocent life is a terrible crime. Until we start preaching the law of God in our church again, we can't expect things to get much better without that. So, choose lives that you and your children may live. Let us pray. Lord God we want to thank you and we want to praise you for pro-lifers. Thank you for Doctors for Life, thank you Lord God for this National Alliance for Life and for the decades of bringing together pro-life activists throughout South Africa. We continue to pray Lord God that you would deepen our faith, widen our vision, make us brave and bold for you, help us Lord not to be cowardly, not to compromise the truth when we face those who are contentious of the right to life. Help us Lord to boldly proclaim that abortion is murder, that life begins at conception, that all life is precious. We ask Lord God that you would Empower each of us and guide us as to what we can do to save lives, to promote pro-life resources. We ask, Lord God, that you would help us in this battle for hearts and minds and the spiritual warfare against the powers of hell itself. Thank you, Lord, for the victories that are taking place in America and for the ongoing battles ahead. We pray, Lord, that you would give us all courage as we seek to fight against the same evils here in South Africa. We pray all this in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen.