Way before recent nationwide opinion polls showed that more Americans consider themselves pro-life, many staffers at pregnancy service centers across the country noticed a growing increase in the number of clients requesting educational and counseling services.

For the last five years, there has been an annual increase in the combined total of women --- and men --- contacting one of 18 pregnancy service centers in California affiliated with International Life Services, founded in 1985 by Los Angeles-based Sister of Social Service Paula Vandegaer.

Counselors at the centers provide free and confidential information about abortion and abortion alternatives, medical and psychiatric referrals, adoption referrals and support groups. Most centers offer women the opportunity to self-administer a free pregnancy test. Since approximately 60 percent of those pregnancy tests turn out to be negative, the client's visit to the center becomes an opportunity to receive lifestyle counseling from pro-life volunteers, noted Sister Vandegaer.

From serving a total of 6,481 Californians in 2005, the state's ILS centers have increased their combined clientele each year. This year's incomplete statistics reported through the month of August show that 13,411 clients have already contacted ILS California centers, up from a combined annual total of 11,356 in 2008.

Many of the other 29 ILS centers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin have also seen significant increases in their clientele. Centers in Arizona, Florida and Texas already report more than twice as many clients as last year.

According to Sister Vandegaer, active in the pro-life movement since 1967 (the year California liberalized its abortion law allowing abortions in case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother), pregnancy service center staffers started noticing a definite shift toward pro-life among "Generation Y" clients, those born from 1977-2002, as early as three years ago.

Clients in the 18-25 age category, the largest group experiencing crisis pregnancies, are more open to listening to the pro-life message than the previous generations since abortion was legalized in 1973 noted Sister Vandegaer. "They're not churched generally, but there's a spiritual sensitivity and they're coming in larger numbers to the centers for counseling," added sister.

She finds it hopeful that, out of 21,949 pregnant women seeking counseling at ILS centers nationwide in 2008, only 37 women are known to have aborted. Another positive sign is that clients seem willing to listen about the adoption option as an alternative to abortion.

At one pregnancy service center in Arizona, two clients have recently chosen adoption for their babies. A pregnancy service center in the California high desert also recently connected a pregnant client with an adoptive couple.

"This reflects a growing pro-life awareness and willingness to consider adoption," said Terry Jung, national coordinator of ILS centers. Another indication of a tilt toward pro-life, adds Jung, is the increase in requests from centers for printed pro-life materials.

"A lot of centers said they had to double orders on materials this year," said Jung. Locally, she noted that handouts from a pregnancy service center booth at the 2008 Ventura County Fair rose significantly: from 27,000 in 2007 to 38,640. Life Centers of Ventura County, she added, are also receiving an ever-increasing number of hits on their web sites, as are other pregnancy service centers.

Molly Ulm, director of a pregnancy service center in Barstow, credits educational outreach to local schools and churches, including parenting class requirements for clients, for the recent doubling of the center's clientele. Marilyn Chisholm, with the Pregnancy & Family Life Center in Inverness, Florida, says their client increase --- from 100 to 125 a month --- has been helped by a grant from the state allowing the center to bill time spent counseling pregnant women.

"The word is out that we're willing to sit and listen and teach," said Chisholm, a center counselor for 13 years. She said she's definitely seen a shift toward pro-life over the years. "Young teens are really pro-life," she declared.

According to a report published last year by the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute, which has been tracking abortion since 1974, the abortion rate in the USA has fallen to its lowest point in more than 30 years, although medical "non-surgical" abortions using RU-486 are rising.

The abortion rate, which is the proportion of pregnancies that end in abortion, dropped by 9 percent to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44, in 2005 (the year with the latest available statistics). The peak --- 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women --- was in both 1980 and 1981. Just over one in five pregnancies in 2005 (22 percent) resulted in abortion, down from one in four pregnancies (25 percent) in 2000.

The pro-life message, says Sister Vandegaer, is becoming more noticed, thanks to the volunteers working at 3,000 pregnancy service centers --- including the 47 ILS centers --- in the U.S. "There's a strong, pro-life social force out there," commented Sister Vandegaer, best-selling author of the first textbook written for pro-life counselors: "Introduction to Pregnancy Counseling."

For more information, contact ILS at (213) 382-2156 or visit www.internationallifeservices.org.