As the Campanile’s bells tolled at noon Wednesday, 37 people holding signs with anti-abortion messages stood in a line on Central Campus. The third annual Life Chain, sponsored by ISU Students for Life, reached halfway from Curtiss Hall to Beardshear Hall.

Before the ISU Students for Life sponsored the Life Chain, there were at least two other groups, including Iowa Staters for Life and Save Our Unborn Lives (S.O.U.L.), bringing the pro-life message to Iowa State, said Bob Horton, professor of agronomy, who took part in the Life Chain

Barb Kolner, a member of the Sanctity of Life Committee at St. Cecilia Church, 2900 Hoover Ave., held a sign reading “Each year 5,700 Iowans are killed by abortion,” a statistic taken from the Iowa Department of Public Health’s 2001 Iowa termination of pregnancy report.

According to the report, in Iowa an average of 477 abortions were performed per month in 2001 and 519 per month in 2002.

“One in three kids in [ISU students’] generation dies by abortion in this country,” Kolner said.

Dan Rajewski, president of ISU Students for Life, said 30 to 35 students are active members in the group, and about 180 are signed up for the group’s e-mail list.

“Every human life has a purpose,” said Rajewski, junior in meteorology. “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”

The Life Chain was met with opposition by several members of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, who stood in front of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.

“We just wanted to have a presence out here today to show there is another way to conceptualize respect for life,” said Nikki Feuerstein, president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and junior in women’s studies.

The group set up a table with abortion rights information to passers-by who would also see the Life Chain.

Those gathered around the table said they were there to show there was another point of view on abortion.

“It’s also important to show that reproductive rights are in peril and we need to show that rights are being taken away from us,” said Kristi Johnson, senior in psychology, who held a sign reading “Every child a wanted child.”

Tony Pometto, professor of food science and human nutrition and an adviser for ISU Students for Life, said his beliefs stem from personal family experiences — he said his wife has experienced four miscarriages.

“The pain never goes away. I can’t even imagine ripping out a healthy baby from the womb — it would be even worse,” Pometto said. “Women never get over an abortion.”

He said women who have had abortions find it’s not a simple operation, and many end up sterile and psychologically damaged.

“But no one talks about that,” Pometto said.