According to the U.S. Department of Health and Services, there were 1.7 million pregnant women between the ages of 20 and 24 in 2007. Out of the total number of pregnancies, there  were 1.08 million births, 407,190 abortions and

an estimated 256, 810 miscarriages.

Different organizations around Chicago are creating awareness and programs devoted to helping pregnant women.

Chicago Birthright has been around for more than 30 years. It stemmed from a group that originated in Canada.  The organization, which seeks to supply alternatives to abortion, is made of  volunteers to help pregnant women.

Sally O’Hare, a volunteer at  Birthright, helps find basic baby necessities

such as diapers, baby food and clothes for pregnant women.

“We get women who are in high school all the way up to women who are in their 40s,” O’Hare said. “We help them if they need some place to live, or if they need maternity clothes.”

Chicago Birthright also offers referrals to places that are a necessity in the months leading up to giving birth.

“We recommend them to hospitals and social services,” O’Hare said. “We connect them to places [in] the state where they could get money. Women just need somebody to talk to, and

they’re frightened.”

The Women’s Center in Chicago works to help women who are either pregnant or who are considering abortion. The center offers a material needs  assistance program, which offers $500,000 in help to families in need.

According to the Women’s Center Web site, the center counseled about 5,900 young women in 2003, most of whom were seriously considering abortion.

About 3,400  women turned out to be pregnant after testing. The center offers ongoing counseling and referral services for alternatives to abortion.

The center also provides more than $500,000 annually in assistance in clothing, food, baby goods, furniture, toiletries and other basic family needs. More than 1,000 children per year, who would likely have been aborted, are brought to birth because of their counselor’s efforts.

The Women’s Center was founded as Des Plaines Pro Life in 1983. Their mission was to provide education about abortion and help groups that provide alternatives to abortion. In 1984, a national umbrella organization encouraged leadership to open one or more crisis pregnancy centers in the Chicago area. Since that time, it’s  grown from a one-center operation, serving about 300 clients a year with a $50,000 budget, to a three-center operation with a $1.3 million budget.

According to the Women’s Center Web site, the organization pursues a holistic approach to meet the needs of clients and their families. The programs recognize that each woman has unmet material, emotional and spiritual needs, which often interact to create the pressure to abort.

Amy Pederson, a counselor at Chicago Caris Pregnancy Clinic, counsels some of the women who come in. to the clinic

“I often see many women who come in and who are in college,” Pederson said. “There are financial concerns with pregnant college students, and if they will be able to care for a child, still finish school and if they will have to put their career on hold.”

The Chicago Caris Pregnancy Clinic offers free counseling, free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and support groups for new mothers, pregnant or parenting. The clinic also provides community referrals

for financial needs.

“These programs help  women know that there are resources out there, and that they can feel supported in order to know that they have someone to call upon,” Pederson said.