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123095 Accurate statistics tell story of abortion
COMMUNITY VIEW: Sheer number of abortions explains lobbying effort
PHILIP CHRISTE
As editors and reporters I hope you will avail yourselves more of published statistics when covering abortion in Westchester. Relying on flimsy data and unverified claims by
local paid abortion-industry lobbyists leads to misleading stories and ill-informed opinions.The statistics presented here are available to anyone who asks from New York's Department of Health.
New York reports 146,489 abortions in 1996. Put another way, the department calculates an "abortion ratio." For every 1,000 live births, there were 652 abortions. One baby in three conceived in New York, there-fore, is likely dismembered and flushed down the drains of New York's abortion clinics.
When viewed by race, the picture for blacks is particularly grim. For every 1,000 live black births, there were 1,092 blacks aborted. More blacks, it seems, die unborn and unnamed in the state's clinics than see the light of day in our hospitals. This fact may explain why Planned Parenthood favors operating their
mills in poorer urban areas like New Rochelle. Add to this that 90 percent of the abortions are done in clinic settings, not hospitals.Who pays for all these abortions? Of the 59,975 black abortions in 1996, 27,820 (47 percent) were funded by New York's Medicaid program. The federal government does not fund Medicaid abortions.
I will leave suggestions of statefimded genocide to our otherwise vocal civil rights advocates.
The sheer quantity of abortions performed in New York unequivocally establishes that Planned Parenthood and other abortionists are not doing these 145,489 abortions to save the lives of 145,489 mothers. Nor is it reasonable to assert they were per-formed because of 145,489 cases of rape or incest.
Could one suggest abortion is a method of birth control? The statistics go on to point out that 57 percent, or 83,365, of the 1996 abortions were second, third, fourth or fifth abortions for the women.
Of this last fact, I'm certain, Planned Parenthood is very much aware. Ex-Planned Parenthood workers have testified that when the organization sells its pills, condoms, diaphragms, IUDs and depoprovera, it knows a future abortion and repeat abortion are likely events. It also knows that 40 percent are paid directly by the patient With another 40 percent paid directly by Medicaid, abortion is big business in New York. This is why you have such visible spokesmen like Francine Stein and Polly Rothstein out front with an accommodating media and deeply involved in electoral politics in Westchester.
Their free ride with the media should end. Journalistic standards of verification of their data and claims would result in fairer reporting and more informed editorials.
The writer is a Mount Kisco resident.