New Map Details New York City’s Shocking 41% Abortion Rate

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 21, 2012   |   11:24PM   |   Washington, DC

A foundation that brought to light shocking numbers from New York City showing the alarmingly high percentage of pregnancies that end in abortion has released a new interactive map visualizing 10 years of NYC abortion data.

Greg Pfundstein the director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation told LifeNews about the new map, which puts the data into a gut-wrenching perspective.

Ten years worth of detailed data on New York City’s staggering 40% abortion ratio –a rate almost twice the national average – shows uneven progress from 2000 to 2009.

The data, which was provided by the New York City Department of Health at the Chiaroscuro Foundation’s request, show the abortion rate by the zip code of residence of women receiving abortions in New York City over the 10 year period.  An online map of the data can be accessed at nyc41percent.com.

While the total number of abortions as well as the abortion ratio is down over the period, both the number of abortions and the abortion ratio increased in the majority of zip codes. There were a number of zip codes which were among the ten zip codes with the highest ratio for at least five years.

Two zip codes, 11212 and 11233, were in the top ten in eight of the ten years, and one, 11216, was in the top ten every year. These three zip codes are contiguous in central Brooklyn at the confluence of the Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods.

“We believe this new map is an even more powerful tool for concerned New Yorkers to understand and begin to address the problem on the most local level,” said Pfundstein. “If you are disturbed by the data in your community, look to your local churches and community organizations for partners who will join in efforts to lower the abortion rate in your neighborhood.”

The zip code with the highest ratio at any point in the period was Queens’s lightly-populated 11430 in 2001, with 16 abortions and 6 live births for a ratio of 72.7%.
 
Several sparsely populated zip codes had ratios well above 60% on several occasions in the 10 year period, but zip codes with substantial populations and larger numbers of both abortions and births tended to top out at about a 60% abortion ratio and go down from there toward the citywide ratio of 41-43%.

Jamaica’s 11434, for example, averaged 951 abortions and 690 live births per year over the period, and had an abortion ration ranging from a high of 60.10% in 2000 to a low of 56.40% in 2007 with an average ratio of 58%. Neighboring 11413 averaged 546 abortions per year, 389 live births, and had a ratio ranging from 61% in 2003 to 55.42% in 2007 with an average of 58.36%.

More than half of all abortions were repeat abortions in every year in the period, ranging from a low of 52.83% in 2007 to a high of 57.41% in 2001, with an average of 55.49% over the period.
 
The Chiaroscuro Foundation is hoping to lower the number of abortions in New York City over time by working with New Yorkers and organizations who agree that the rate of abortion in New York is too high.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of New Yorkers believe the abortion rate is too high in New York City – including 57% of pro-choice women – according to a poll conducted by the polling firm McLaughlin & Associates for the Foundation earlier this year.  Seventy four percent believe that the overall 60% abortion rate in the African American community is too high.

New York City’s abortion rate abortion rate is nearly double the national average of 23%, a fact to which the Chiaroscuro Foundation has been drawing attention since the 2009 data were released in January of 2011.

Full data tables are available at nyc41percent.com.