Thousands of people clustered on major street corners in South Florida on Sunday afternoon in the name of prayer and peaceful protest against the practice of abortion.

They were but a small part of a national rally called ``The Life Chain,'' an annual event organized by churches that calls on its members to stand up for their beliefs while standing on a street corner for an hour.

Priests, pastors, parents and children held prayer circles, sang songs and held signs with statements such as ``Adoption, the Loving Option'' and ``Abortion Is Murder.''

``I came out here for the dignity of women and the protection of life from the moment of fertilization to its natural end,'' said Cecilia Soñé, who protested alongside a collection of home schoolers near U.S. 1 and Ponce De Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables. ``This is so important -- we're defending life.''

As she spoke, three cars raced by and honked in support.

Save for nasty comments from some passing drivers or a trio of a University of Miami students who held mostly obscene signs, there were no major counterprotests.

In Broward, about 1,500 members from about 60 churches lined up along University Drive, from Miramar Parkway to Sample Road, said head organizer Tewannah Aman.

In Miami-Dade, organizer Jorge Gonzalez estimated 2,000 people gathered at various spots along U.S. 1, from LeJeune Road to Kendall Drive.

Organizers in both counties said they had record numbers of supporters, which they think was bolstered by the same activist spirit of protest that has produced tea parties against government spending and picketing against national healthcare reform.

``The political climate has made this to be a bigger and better event with more people aboard,'' Aman said. ``People are really standing up for what they believe in.''

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., an American cardinal on Sunday issued a plea for the rights of the unborn at a church service that included Vice President Joe Biden, six members of the Supreme Court and hundreds of members of the legal community.

Five of the six Roman Catholics on the high court -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito -- heard the homily by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo; the sixth, Justice Clarence Thomas, did not attend. Justice Stephen Breyer, who is Jewish, was there as well.

Speaking at the annual Red Mass the day before the opening of the Supreme Court term, DiNardo said that people represented by lawyers are ``more than clients. . . . In some cases the clients are voiceless for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support.''

As DiNardo spoke, protesters opposed to abortion demonstrated in front of the church.

DiNardo did not elaborate on the rights of the unborn, focusing instead on how the complexity of the law can have a dehumanizing effect on those who practice it.

Increasing specialization within the law is ``dizzying'' and such formal knowledge ``frequently becomes semi-mechanical, even distancing,'' DiNardo said at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. ``The law and lawyers are around because justice among human beings will always be an issue.

``Even sophisticated knowledgeable human lawyers need reminding, need a divine fire . . . both in their personal lives and in their profession itself.''

The Associated Press contributed to this story.