ACCRA, Ghana — “Every life is created in the image of God; protect it!” said one marcher’s sign. “Abortion is evil; stop it!” said another. Another marcher’s sign stressed the eternal values of life and faith.

More than 1,000 people took part in a pro-life march on Aug. 8 in Ghana’s capital of Accra, seeking to protect all life and rejecting efforts to promote abortion in the country and throughout the continent.

Some carried signs that objected to international organizations that promote abortion in Ghana. Other signs accused African governments of promoting a “culture of death.” Still others stressed the importance of reserving sex to married couples, the Catholic News Agency of Africa reports.

The march was organized by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference. It was one of the events of the bishops’ conference’s Aug. 7-8 pro-life conference intended to promote reflection on the gospel of life. The conference focused on protecting life and family values.

Bishop Anthony Adanuty of Keta Akatsi, the bishops’ conference’s vice president, said that Ghanaians and other Africans “must resist being like other nations by drawing lessons from the consequences of the moral state of the West.”

“We in Ghana and Africa have a mission to promote life in the world, and we cannot renege on this mission or reject God’s word,” the bishop said.

The pro-life meeting topics included how to build up pro-life activism, natural family planning, responsible sexual behavior and the imposition of the sexual revolution on Africa.

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, praised the discussions about protecting life and promoting family values. He also praised the Ghanaian bishops’ conference for holding the events.

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference in an Aug. 8 statement stressed the role of the family in welcoming, nurturing and protecting life.

The bishops said they would continue to resist “the persistent and pernicious attempts to impose population control on Africa by wealthy philanthropists, donor nations and international organizations who are pursuing this agenda subtly under the platform of sexual and reproductive and health rights.”

By working with the government, other faith-based organizations, civil society groups and the media, the bishops said, focus will be placed on the importance of faith and family in human development, education and social order.

In addition, they reaffirmed that sacramental marriage was instituted by God as a permanent, indissoluble union of one man and one woman. The bishops rejected adulterous unions and same-sex unions as “inimical to the mind of the Creator” and as damaging to “the integrity of the human being and the family.”