In most of the United States, 24 abortions are carried out for every 100 live births. In New York, 72 abortions occur for every 100 live births.
The continuing boom in abortions—90,157 were performed in the city in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available—apparently means that many women are using abortion as their birth control method of choice. ....
No surprise here. But then we get to hear a public health official say something truly insane, at least according to Albert Einstein, who was credited with defining insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The easy availability of abortion and not enough access to affordable contraception may be reasons behind the city's high abortion rate. An average of 250 abortions are performed in the city each day at more than 200 clinics and doctor's offices.
And even though free or low-cost contraception is offered through 59 publicly funded programs at 218 sites in New York state, mostly in New York City, more could be provided, says Deborah Kaplan, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“To me, the problem is access,” says Ms. Kaplan. “If we improved access to contraceptives, there would be a reduction in abortion.”
You can't spit in New York City without hitting someplace that's dispensing cheap or free birth control, but still the abortion rate is astronomical. The proposed solution? MORE BIRTH CONTROL!
More access to contraception means more people engaging in sexual intercourse in untenable situations. Now, I know that this is a heretical thing to say in this day and age, but SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IS WHAT CAUSES PREGNANCY. The more you do it, the more likely you are to get pregnant.
The lowest rates and rations of abortions are in Idaho, Wyoming, and South Dakota.
In the Alan Guttmacher Institutes's Contraception Counts grading system:
Idaho:
* 22nd in service availability
* 26th in laws and policies
* 30th in public funding
* 26th overall
Wyoming:
* 5th in service availability
* 26th in laws and policies
* 3rd in public funding
* 7th overall
South Dakota:
* 40th in service availability
* 40th in laws and policies
* 37th in public funding
* 44th overall
Only Wyoming gets what the AGI would consider any good scores, but they're considered pretty sucky, by AGI standards, on "laws and policies". Idaho and South Dakota, on the other hand, rank 26th and 44th for "preventing unintended pregnancy" even though they actually rank 1st and 3rd for actually having low rates of pregnancies so troublesome that they land the mother on the abortion table.
The AGI doesn't show New York City separately, but you can see here how they rank the state as a whole:
* 25th in service availability
* 3rd in laws and policies
* 13th in public funding
* 5th overall
"Overall", the Alan Guttmacher Institute ranks New York State 5th in "pregnancy prevention" efforts. I'd have to suggest that maybe these "prevention" efforts are, in New York City at least, failing miserably. Maybe New York City needs to take some lessons from Idaho.
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