New York City often is referred to as the late-term abortion capital of the U.S.
In 2013, there were 1,752 late-term abortions on unborn babies at least 21 weeks of pregnancy – or about one every five hours, on average, Townhall reports.
The numbers come from the Centers for Disease Control’s latest abortion report. Abortion rates dropped to the lowest level in more than four decades in 2013, according to the CDC. However, an estimated 900,000-plus unborn babies still lost their lives to abortion that year.
Townhall put New York City’s late-term abortion numbers in this context:
The entire states of New Jersey and Georgia each reported that 705 unborn children at least 21 weeks of age were aborted within their borders in 2013. They led all 39 states that reported their abortions by gestational age.
But their combined 21-weeks-and-later abortions (1,410) did not equal the 1,752 done in New York City alone.
This was despite the fact that both New Jersey (8,899,339) and Georgia (9,992,167), according to the Census Bureau, had larger populations in 2013 than New York City (8,405,837).
Abortion activists often claim that late-term abortions are rare and only make up about 1.3 percent of abortions in the U.S., usually in an effort to fight against late-term abortion limits; but even that small percentage represents thousands of unborn babies’ lives. There were at least 5,770 late-term abortions at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy in 2013, according to the CDC. Another approximate 8,150 abortions took place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks, the CDC reports.
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These numbers likely are even higher. California, Maryland and New Hampshire do not report their abortion numbers to the CDC.
Babies who are black also are disproportionately targeted for abortions in New York City. In 2012, city vital statistics indicated that more black babies were killed in abortions (31,328) than were born (24,758).
The encouraging news is that abortion rates are dropping all across the U.S. The 2013 CDC abortion surveillance report showed a 5 percent drop in abortions from 2012 and a 20 percent drop since 2004. The CDC data, which is incomplete because the government does not require states to report abortion numbers, reported 664,435 abortions in 47 states in 2013. The abortion rate was 12.5 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44.
The Associated Press reports the CDC has not recorded a lower abortion rate since 1971, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade and its companion case Doe v. Bolton, which allowed for legalized abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy. In 1971, several states had legalized abortion; but it was not legal throughout the U.S.
Because California, Maryland and New Hampshire do not report their abortion numbers to the CDC, news outlets estimate the real abortion total was closer to 900,000 nation-wide in 2013.
