New York City Has Become the Abortion Capital of America, No Change in Sight

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 5, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New York City Has Become the Abortion Capital of America, No Change in Sight Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 5, 2005


New York, NY (LifeNews.com) —
New York City has become the abortion capital of America. The state of New York passed one of the only laws legalizing abortion in 1970, three years before the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Since then the situation has only gotten worse.

Some thirty-five years later, New York City has the highest abortion rates in the country. According to the last figures available, 39 women out of 1,000 women statewide had an abortion.

There are so many abortions per year in New York that the number of babies who die, 164,000 roughly equals one-third of the population of Wyoming. There are so many abortions that 10 percent of all of the abortions performed in the U.S. annually happen in New York and 70 percent of those are in New York City.

There are more abortions performed on teen girls, more repeat abortions and more abortions performed after 21 weeks of pregnancy in New York City than anywhere else in the nation.

According to the New York Metro, the ratio of abortions to births in some parts of the city is one to one. There are 34 abortion businesses in New York City that performed 400 abortions or more annually.

Pro-life groups have not only been unable to stem the tide, they’re losing the battle.

The state Medicaid system pays for abortions with taxpayer funds, there are virtually no limits like parental involvement or informed consent, and there doesn’t look to be any change.

New York is one of the few states with several active minor parties but the Right to Life party failed to retain ballot access in 2002 and no longer has a web site. New York Right to Life has a hard time winning in the state legislature and pro-life candidates can forget about winning any statewide seats. Not only are most Democrats in the state pro-abortion but Republicans, like NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki are pro-abortion as well.

In fact Bloomberg has gone so far as to require students in training to become doctors to learn how to perform abortions.

Abortion has always been promoted in New York City, the Metro reported. Even in the 1800s, substandard abortion facilities advertised their services — including in the New York Times. In fact abortion became a big advertising revenue source as one business spent $60,000 on ads in 1863. But by the late 1800s that changed and New York led a revolution against abortion.

NARAL made New York its first target in the 1960s and persuaded local Democrats to join the cause. The Times joined the fight again, printing numerous editorials supporting repeal of the late 1800s laws against abortion.

And in 1970, Governor Rockefeller, signed the bill into law making New York the only state in the nation with abortion on demand throughout pregnancy. Some 350,000 women came to New York from around the country for abortions between then and Roe, the Metro reported.

Dangerous abortions from the RU 486 abortion pill also came to NYC in 1997 — three years before the Clinton administration quietly approved the drug in its waning days.

Today, Planned Parenthood is the undisputed leader in abortions in New York City and its Margaret Sanger Center performs 11,000 abortions a year — more abortions than occur in most states.

“I’m sure we provide a good chunk of the abortions in the U.S.,” Maureen Paul, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood New York told the Metro.

About a third of the women who get abortions there have them paid with taxpayer funds through the state Medicaid system. Some 43 percent of abortions in New York are Medicaid-funded abortions

Studies from other states show that if those could be limited to just race cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother, the abortions could be cut by one-third. But every time lawmakers try to do that, they fail.

“That’s one of the reasons we have one of the highest abortion rates in the country,” Christina Fadden Fitch, the legislative director of the New York State Right to Life Committee, told the Metro. “It’s really sad. It’s like throwing abortion at the poor.”

Abortion practitioners strongly defend the abortions they do and even have problems with abortion advocates like Hillary Clinton who sometimes say things to appear more moderate — like calling abortion a "tragedy."

“Every time I do an abortion I save a woman’s life. If you want to call that a tragedy — I don’t consider it a tragedy, I’m sorry," Planned Parenthood’s Paul told the Metro.

“Our view is, abortion is nothing special. Abortion is right up there with having a baby or getting the care for whatever other medical needs you have," Anne Davis of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center said.

In its overview of abortion in New York, the Metro concludes, "New York will be more fully confronted with its status as America’s abortion capital, and New Yorkers will be confronted with how culturally distant they have become from many other Americans. It is by no means certain how they will react."