New York City Has Extremely High Abortion Rate Despite Free Birth Control

From http://lifenews.com/state3437.html


New York City Has Extremely High Abortion Rate Despite Free Birth Control

RSS Newsfeed Email article
Printer friendly
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 11, 2008



New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- If there is any place in the nation women can get free or low-cost birth control, it's New York City. But a new report indicates the abortion rate in the nation's largest city is three times higher than the national average despite the easy access to birth control and contraception.

While a survey from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a part of Planned Parenthood, shows fewer than 20 percent of all pregnancies nationwide end in abortion, 72 pregnancies end in abortion in New York for every 100 births. http://www.lifenews.com/nat3624.html

More than 250 abortions are done every day in New York City at more than 200 locations, including abortion businesses and private doctor's offices.

New figures reported in the Crain's business journal show 90,157 were done in New York in 2006 -- which the business journal admitted showed "women are using abortion as their birth control method of choice."

Yet, abortion advocates repeatedly say abortions will decline if taxpayers are required to continue funding birth control and contraception at a high level and promote it extensively.

free or low cost birth control and contraception, according to Crain's, is currently offered at through 59 publicly funded programs at 218 places in New York state, with most of those located in New York City or the greater area.

Amazingly, Deborah Kaplan, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told the business journal that the answer to the problem is more access to birth control.

“To me, the problem is access," she said. “If we improved access to contraceptives, there would be a reduction in abortion."

Meanwhile, the taxpayer-funding of abortions on both the state and city level is draining tax dollars that could be used for education, police or other services.

Abortions cost the state of New York $16 million in Medicaid dollars every year and city taxpayers pay even more through the new York policy that provides free abortions to poor women at public facilities.

The high abortion rate also appears to have a racial component that concerns pro-life advocates.

Though black New Yorkers account for 24 percent of the city's total population, the 2006 city figures show they had 45 percent of the abortions there. That mirrors the national trend, according to AGI, which shows African-Americans have abortions at twice the rate of whites and Hispanics.

The Crain's report also indicates that New York's high abortion numbers have changed in that they no longer show women from across the northeast going there for abortions.

Now, 93 percent of the abortions done in New York City are on local residents.