Makerere University Anti-Abortion Ministry

If you faint in the day of adversity,
Your strength is small.

Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.

If you say, “Surely we did not know this,”
Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it?

He who keeps your soul, does He not know it?
And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?

Proverbs 24:10-12

We mentioned in a previous blog post that the single sisters were working on starting an Anti-Abortion Ministry at Makerere University. What started with two contacts at the University has turned into a group of 10 or so students who are passionate about speaking up for those who can’t speak for themselves.

 Wanda became inspired to advocate for the unborn after listening to a message by Finny Kuruvilla about abortion last year. When Elizabeth Adams and Heidi Peachey (two young women who both served with the mission here for some months) arrived last October, the first ministry they collectively prayed about starting was a pro-life ministry. Since then, they also became actively involved with a pregnancy crisis center called Wakisa Ministries. This ministry helps young girls in Uganda with crisis pregnancy while addressing their emotional, physical, and spiritual well being.

We believe that a person’s life begins at conception, and that the value of a person is based primarily on the fact that they were created in the image of God. As such, the prevalence of abortion as an accepted practice—and as what many would call a necessary practice—is a great tragedy to us, both as we think about the lives lost to abortion and the women whose situations and experiences have led them to choose abortion.

In all that we do to fight this problem, we want to remember that our primary purpose is to save lives. But just as important to us is loving women who have already chosen abortion or who are considering it. An unplanned pregnancy can be a terrifying and traumatic thing, and the women who find themselves in this situation need encouragement, support, and a real answer to the question,“what am I going to do?” Our goal is to help the mother to heal, and the child to live. We want to provide help that considers and plans for the future, not just the present. The whole situation needs to be resolved, not just the momentary trouble.

Our goal is to reach women who are already in this situation, but also to help other women to make decisions which will protect them from unplanned pregnancies. Mainly we want to teach people about God’s plan for sexual purity and try to model that in our own lives. We know that this is a message which is not popular in most cultures, and that it is a different message than that which is presented by most foreign NGOs working in Uganda. But our goal is to walk in God’s ways and to teach others to do the same, and we believe that the pattern of sexual purity laid out in the Bible (an even higher standard than abstinence) is the best solution to not only the problem of abortion, but also to a host of other issues that young people face.

 In late February we were introduced to two young women who were willing to organize a group of students at Makerere University to meet and discuss the problem of abortion. Some who came to that meeting had never heard much about abortion, and were curious to see what we would say about it. Others were already passionate about the unborn child’s right to life, and one student even used to advise friends of hers to get abortions and gave them money for that very purpose. There was quite the spectrum. After that first meeting, there was quite the feeling of purpose among the students, and the young woman who had funded abortions previously shared that she would now counsel her friends not to abort and support them in that choice. We’ve met several times since to continue to teach about abortion (what it is, what happens during one) and about sexual purity. Our discussions with these students have been both sobering and encouraging as we learn more about the situation on their campus and about their eagerness to make a difference.