She worked helped to rally support for the anti-conscription movement by the late 1980s. South African young white males began to question their mandatory military service and increasingly saw it as an immoral war to defend apartheid. Cross helped almost 2000 young men apply for military conscription exclusion to the Board for Religious Objectors. Many more left South Africa to avoid the forced military service. Their numbers steadily increased by the end of the decade. In 1987, there were 23 conscientious objectors. The number of objectors rose to 143 in 1988 and increased very rapidly in 1989, reaching a high of 771 objectors.