New research from a organization that has spent considerable time unpacking new statistics showing the abortion rate in New York City is twice the national average shows Manhattan may have the highest abortion rate of any city in the U.S.

The Chiaroscuro Foundation examined the data surrounding New York City’s staggering 41% abortion ratio, breaking the figures down by zip code, and its new analysis shows the zip code with the highest abortion ratio in the city, 67%, is in Manhattan’s Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood.

“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,” the organization noted.

“The zip code with the highest ratio, 10018, is in the Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan, with a ratio of 67%, followed by rates of 60% in two Jamaica, Queens zip codes and in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, 10012, and Central Harlem-Morningside Heights neighborhoods.”

“The five zip codes with the lowest abortion ratios are on the Upper East Side, in Lower Manhattan, on the Upper West Side, and in Borough Park, Brooklyn.  The lowest ratio, 6.12%, is in 10162,” it continued.

The Chiaroscuro Foundation also asked for information from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene about the number of repeat abortions and it found that, in 2009, 48,627 of the 87,273 abortions in New York City, or 56%, were repeat abortions and 33,401, 38%, were paid for by Medicaid.

Greg Pfundstein Executive Director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, told LifeNews he is dismayed by the numbers but knows they are accurate... “The Chiaroscuro Foundation is grateful to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for providing this detailed data; no city in the nation keeps better, more current records. Even so, given the city’s extremely high abortion rate, we renew our call for Mayor Bloomberg to instruct the Department to release the data in an even more current fashion: preliminarily month by month throughout the year. 

"Remember, we are still talking about 2009 data.  By being able to measure where the highest rates of abortion are occurring in the city, we can determine over time what methods of outreach work best to lower those rates.”

...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.
Find more information on the New York abortion figures at http://www.nyc41percent.com

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[Ertelt | New York, NY | LifeNews.com | 9/9/11, http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/09/shock-56-of-abortions-in-new-york-city-are-repeat-abortions/]