NY, The Abortion Capital of America

Last week I was discussing about USA legal abortion procedures with one of the girls coming to our centers. At one point, she asked me what was the legislation applied in NYC as she felt horrified that all those nightmares could be happening just right here. I told her everything I knew but I didn't feel that was enough so I decided to investigate a little bit on my own and and find out which were exactly the restrictions applied in this city and here is what I found...

New York abortion laws are less restrictive than those in many other states, which often impose long waiting periods, consent requirements, strict facility codes, and other statutory obstacles. The Empire State requires a licensed doctor to perform the procedure. But all states, including New York, have some abortion restrictions.

Regulating abortion is like playing whack-a-mole. Every time a state tightens its laws, abortions rise somewhere else.

In 1970, New York passed the most permissive abortion law in America, one that defined the state as the country’s abortion refuge. Overnight, a new industry materialized in New York City, promoting itself to women across the country. The pitches were often blunt. A newspaper ad from the time inquired, “Want to be un-pregnant?”

Facts About Abortion: New York

Thirty-five years later, New York has the highest abortion rate in America. In 2000, the last year for which good data are available, 39 out of every 1,000 women in the state ended a pregnancy, for a total of 164,000 abortions that year. In America, one of every ten abortions occurs in New York, and in New York, seven of every ten abortions are performed in New York City. 

In absolute terms, there are more abortions performed on minors, more repeat abortions, and more late abortions (over 21 weeks) in New York City than anywhere else in the country. 

Over the past twenty years, while legislatures have circumscribed access to abortion in state after state, especially for the poor and the young, New York has remained an island of unrestricted abortion rights. Medicaid pays for abortions for low-income women. Teenagers don’t need a parent’s permission to have an abortion. There are no 24-hour waiting periods. Thirty-four major clinics in New York City each perform more than 400 abortions per year.

To know more about abortion restrictions in NY and other States read: Abortion Restrictions in States

In short, New York is the abortion capital of America.

The United States is slowly turning into two places when it comes to abortion. In one, easy access to the procedure is being eroded by regulations, while conservative legislators dream up new restrictions, waiting periods, and consent laws. In the other, abortion is accessible, inexpensive—often government-subsidized—and safeguarded by powerful interest groups. 

More than half of Americans live in states where abortion is prohibited at about 24 to 26 weeks of pregnancy. In many of the states, the law bans abortion when a fetus is deemed viable outside the womb, which is generally in the range of 24 to 26 weeks. NY is one of those. However, there are nine States and also the District of Columbia that do not have specific laws prohibiting abortion after a certain point in pregnancy.

We need to stop this sacrilege

State abortion regulations have marched across the American landscape because they strike the sweet spot of the abortion debate, that place between criminalization and abortion-on-demand that commands broad majorities. These state laws are very often only superficially reasonable, especially if one believes, as the Supreme Court said in Roe, that abortion is a “fundamental right.” But their superficiality is their genius. Consciences are pricked by “partial birth” abortion. Parents become mystified that their teenager can have an abortion without their permission. Requiring a woman to cool her heels for 24 hours before an abortion seems like a common-sense precaution. New York has remained a fortress in the face of these laws. But in the next stage of the abortion wars, when laws tighten and women begin seeking refuge in blue metropolises, 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.

For more information you can read the complete article: The Abortion Capital of America