SALISBURY — Sunday afternoon a group of about 50 people committed to alternatives to abortion gathered for an hour down along Innes and Main streets for an annual silent prayer chain.

The Life Chain is a silent, prayerful one-hour rally whose purpose is to oppose abortion and offer life-giving options to pregnant girls and women, according to the website. The National Life Chain started in 1987 by Royce Dunn, founder and current director.

Life Chain is a faith-based event, designed to “forge a strong coalition bent on bridge-building with area churches, public officials, law enforcement, and the public at large,” according to the directions on forming Life Chain events.

“The Prayer Chain brings to light that every life deserves to be lived,” said local organizer Barbara Franklin.

“’Live Action,’ a pro-life organization is launching a ‘Can’t Stay Silent’ campaign to amplify these voices to spread the truth about post abortion trauma,” she added. “If we are going to change the way society treats unborn children we have to change the way we talk about the unborn. For instance, a woman is not ‘going to be a mother,’ she already is a mother, and the baby is not ‘on the way,’ it has already arrived.”

Members of the youth group from Sacred Heart participated and were excited by the number of positive responses and horn beeps they got, and several carried a banner saying “We are the generation that will end abortion.”

The month of October has been designated nationally as Right to Life month and Franklin said “the banners and crosses will stay up throughout the month.”

“It is so important to have the truth, because once that baby is conceived, and is known, it becomes a new life. It’s not a choice anymore. It’s the image and likeness and once in the womb, it has the right to life, as our Constitution says and our God says,” said Franklin, whose commitment is clear in her voice. “The new life has its own body and its own right to life. I understand unwanted pregnancy but we have so many ways to help the mothers and the fathers, so many options. People don’t take that to heart. My heart is just broken because we’ve lost so many wonderful people since Roe v Wade. Since Roe v Wade was overturned, we’ve lost even more because they are still fighting, still saying ‘my body, my choice.’ An individual life coming into the womb and then into our world — every child is in God’s image, and it’s almost a slap in the face when we say it’s not important to save this child. We should respect ourselves, we are not a playground, and there is responsibility. We are trying to provide more education for the younger generations so they understand there are other options, other alternatives.”