The latest tragic numbers, compiled by the pro-life Chiaroscuro Foundation, found the Bronx particularly devastated, with an astounding 48 percent of babies aborted in that borough in 2010. More shocking still were the 38,574 African-American pre-born babies who were slaughtered in the city during that time — 60 percent of the pregnancies in New York City’s African-American population.
“In parts of the city more than half of all pregnancies end in abortion,” said Greg Pfundstein, executive director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation. “This is very, very disturbing.”
He added that his group was glad of the promising small dip in abortions compared to last year, which he said followed a similar national trend over the past couple of decades. But, he added, “obviously we would like to see much more significant progress moving forward.”
Among the findings based on the most recent NYC health department numbers:
• Of the city’s 208,541 pregnancies in 2010, there were 124,791 live births compared to 83,750 abortions, for an abortion rate of 40 percent.
• Non-Hispanic blacks had 38,574 abortions, compared to 26,635 live births, meaning that for every 1,000 African-American babies born, 1,448 were slaughtered through abortion.
• For non-Hispanic black teens in NYC the numbers were even more troubling, with a reported 5,956 abortions compared to 2,265 live births — which means that for every 1,000 African-American babies born to teen mothers, 2,630 were aborted.
The 63-percent abortion rate among all NYC teens — 12,139 abortions to 7,207 live births — means that for the city’s teen mothers, 1,684 babies were aborted for every 1,000 who were welcomed into the world.
A citywide poll conducted for the Chiaroscuro Foundation last year found that two-thirds of New Yorkers (64 percent) think that too many babies are being aborted each year. In fact, 51 percent said they would support a 24-hour waiting period before a woman could go through with the procedure. Similarly, some 63 percent of NYC residents said they would support the implementation of a parental consent measure for girls under 18 years of age seeking an abortion.
Writing on the Catholic-leaning FirstThings.com website, Matthew Cantirino noted that a perusal of the interactive NYC abortion map put together by Chiaroscuro Foundation “reveals just how commonplace and devastating abortion is in low-income neighborhoods, particularly in minority sections of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.”
He pointed out, however, that the ZIP code with the lowest abortion percentage — 11219 — covers Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, “a heavily Hasidic Jewish section known for both its strict religious observance and its strong communal support network.”
This small point of pro-life light in a sea of pro-abortion darkness, wrote Cantirino, “appears to be a clear example of just how much good can be accomplished when religious communities step into these kinds of issues.”
