Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As they have done for years, hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates will gather at cities and towns across the nation in a silent protest against abortion. They will congregate on busy streets with signs such as "Abortion Kills Children," "Abortion Hurts Women," and "Jesus Forgives and Heals."

The signs are a testimony that abortion destroys the lives of women and children but that, for women who have had one, there is hope and healing afterwards.

Royce Dunn, the national director of Life Chain, says pro-life people will participate in more than 1,200 cities across North America at 2:30 p.m. in each time zone.

Dunn, in a statement provided to LifeNews.com, said the Life Chain is especially poignant give the concerns Americans have over the destruction of life via terrorism.

"Adult America equates terrorism with brutal beheadings and heartless bombings," Dunn explained.

"But if tens of millions of our fellow citizens could speak to us, with their questioning eyes piercing our hard hearts, they would recall fellow Americans who mercilessly suctioned, dismembered, tore, cut, crushed, burned, and starved them to death, while no institution in their culture defended them with serious resolve," he said.

Participants in the Life Chain are urged to pray or stand silently during the event, which is billed as an educational and prayerful event rather than a boisterous protest.

Life Chain urges pastors to lead their congregations and parishes to an hour of sidewalk prayer," Dunn said. He hopes that will lead churches to take a greater role in opposing abortion.

"The future of our nation will be determined by church leadership," Dunn said.

"Our clergy control the privilege and power of our nation's pulpits and thereby, to an eminent degree, the moral climate in which our government functions. Surely pastoral accountability before God is heavy," he explained.

Local life chain leaders have registered their participation on the organizations national web site and anyone wanting to participate can go there to find out more information.

Related web sites:
Life Chain - http://www.nationallifechain.org