After 41% Abortion Stat, Pro-Life Advocates Target Anti-CPC NYC Bill

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 10, 2011   |   11:58AM   |   New York, NY

After new statistics from the New York City health department revealed 41 percent of pregnancies in the Big Apple ending in abortion, pro-life advocates are holding a rally against a bill that would hurt pregnancy centers trying to lower the figure.

The city council is considering a measure that would place stringent limits on the advertising pregnancy centers use and require them to post signs designed to dissuade women from seeking their abortion alternatives services.

To raise more attention to the legislation, top national pro-life leaders will be in New York City tonight for a rally at 7:00 p.m. local time at Manhattan Bible Church.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan is expected to lead the rally along with Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who has had two abortions and now speaks up for the pro-life perspective.

The city Health Department’s latest statistics said 41 percent of pregnancies in the city ended in abortion in 2009, which is twice the national rate. According to Health Department data, among African-American women the abortion rate was 59.8 percent and Hispanics had higher abortion rates as well.  Black women have a 59.8% abortion rate in NY compared to Hispanics with 41.3%, Asians 22.7% and Whites having 20.4% of the abortions.

Responding to those numbers, Dolan says the comprehensive sex ed message Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates have pushed clearly hasn’t resulted in reducing abortions in New York City.

“My word, what have we done the last 30 years? There’s candy bowls on people’s desks with condoms, they’re dropping them from airplanes, yet nothing seems to improve, so they’ve been on the wrong track here,” Archbishop Dolan said.

In a statement LifeNews.com received, King said she is attending the rally to urge members of the black pro-life movement to speak up more and to address the unprecedented targeting of minority women for abortion.

“It’s an outrage that there is an attempt to stifle the life-saving work of New York’s Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” she said. “We come together in a chorus of protest against Bill 371–legislation that would require pregnancy centers, (CPCs) to post signage in front of their buildings that would discourage women seeking alternatives to abortion from entering their facilities.”

The primary target of Bill 371 are the pregnancy centers in the city trying to provide women with tangible pregnancy assistance and abortion alternatives. Chris Slattery, who founded the first pregnancy center in New York City, now oversees 12 centers, including one across the street from Planned Parenthood at E. 149th Street.

“Since 1985, our CPCs have saved 38,000 babies through one-on-one counseling to over 100,000 women by providing education about fetal development and alternatives to abortion including parental support and adoption,” said Slattery.

Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin are behind the proposed ordinance. Should the measure be approved, one pro-life legal group is planning to sue the city over the law.

Slattery says the record of success at the centers proves how much they are needed in America’s largest city. They provide free services inside 12 centers and clinics in five counties and on the streets of the South Bronx with their mobile clinics including free ultrasounds, subsidized pre-natal care, supplies for moms and kids, ongoing care and love, adoption aid and spiritual guidance..

“EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers in New York City were able to Save close to 3,000 moms and their babies from a certain abortion in the abortion capital of America in 2010,” he said.

He estimates anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 women will be helped at the centers in 2011 “who would otherwise fall prey to the largest concentration of abortion centers in the United States.”

“Without any changes in law we have been able to save over 38,000 children from abortion. EMC’s effective life-saving system is the best possible way to save the tens of thousands of children at great risk here,” he concluded.

Dr. Gerard Nadal of the Center for Morality in Public Life, Rev. Arnold Culbreath of Protecting Black Life, Rev. Clennard Childress and Pastor Stephen Broden of LEARN, Rev. Catherine Davis of the Network of Politically Active Christians, Rev. Walter Hoye of Issues4Life, and Rev. Dr. La Verne Tolbert, a national abstinence educator, are also expected to attend the rally.