On Demand
Abortions in New York
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A new report show's New York's abortion rate is three times the national average. Dr.Robert Fullilove, Researcher and STD Prevention Expert at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Dr. Rachel Jones, Senior Research Associate at Guttmacher Institute, discuss the state’s abortion rate.
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It was a big mistake to allow the murder of millions of babies by calling it abortion in the first place. I hope the Supreme Court finds a way to reverse the very bad ruling on Roe v Wade.
Starting out on the wrong foot saying "low income" women are having more abortions b/c medicaid is paying.
Access Access Access.
When you live in a city or a state which has relatively no barriers to abortion you will have high numbers.
Mississippi has one city for abortion and women have to make two trips to get one.
I don't think a large number of abortions is alarming because these children would just be unwanted.
The more affluent must be leaving NY State to have their abortions done in secret.
Once you make a decision to terminate your income status plays NO part in the decision.
I wonder is some of these are people coming from out of state areas where abortions may be more difficult to obtain, so called tourism abortion.
Where was this study published? What's the citation?
Bravo Micheal from Inwood . I agree with you 200% Let em stay down there where they kill the babies AFTER they are born. Or send them to be killed in Iraq at 18 and 19 years of age for an idiot's "mistakes" and lies. These Red state people have gotten opur country into the mess it is in right now and stil want to drag us down more...
It's a free country Richard. When you can reproduce you can have an opinion.
I am not believing my ears!! What is this attack on Black Women?
Stop talking about Black Women as if they are low income, un-educated, no moral having, std packing whores! Stop it.
There is a huge number of whites, immigrants and hispanics doing worse! Killing their children and leaving them in trash cans.
and poor? I can't listen anymore.
Children in the womb are the property and live at the descretion of the mother that hosts them. It is HER body, HER egg, HER pregnancy etc etc. Only THAT woman can decide if she wants HER body to continue to carry on that process or not. Everyone else should just stay out.
That was civil.
It is murder
But women have and deserve the right to choose
The presumed father should know prior to the abortion
Access whether location or financial does make a difference
And raw feels better hence unwanted pregnancies
Comments like #9 is what this type of negative talk attracts! Thank you Doctors for this slander!
Thanks for doing a show on this, and broadening the conversation. It's very interesting and eye opening to hear about all of the reasons why our abortion rate is higher- income, planning, access to health care etc. Goes to show what a complex issue this is.
All too often the media/politics try to simplify this.
No one is talking about the fact that we also have 16 million people here in NYC as oppose to a few hundred thousand people or a couple of million people living in other cities (besides California). Is the percentage based on population? Out of all of the other cities in the US, we also have the biggest tourism compare to other cities and people actually have access to abortion here than most places in the country.
Yes, keep your opinion to your state, Richard of Texas. We have enough crazies like you and our president who's done enough damage in the world and our city with your guns and politics.
And now an on-topic comment: condoms don't cost much at all. Can we really say that low-income folk don't have access to prevention? Kind of hard to believe.
I know I am going to sound like the BL show facist but as a childhood friend to a few poor and unwanted kids and as might be hypothesized by the book "Freekanomics", I don't want women forced into having kids they are ambivalent about...let them be sure (enough).
Until the world wants to give all unwanted children an equivalent childhood to a good one...until then, I would spare those kids and the prison system and the allegedly "innocent citizens" the likely grief.
God blesses women with more eggs than they can fertilize...what one might call this an abundance.
Heck, if you can provide a pleasurable life for all maybe you can make menstruation a social embarrassment and fertilize and bring all eggs to term.
If you can find the food and room you can include birds and frogs and fish...all trillions of them. until you can handle this abundance though let's please recall that the world's living rooms and kitchens are finite.
Big abundant Judeo-Christen ideals second, the ability to fullfill this love (mission) first.
Do forgive me if required
I think we are a lot more civil than these red state war mongers. Look at what "their " president is doing to our civil rights! They dont respect freedom of speech, unless it is the right to hateful speech. I think some Americans (along with the rest of the world) are just sick and tired of the relentless droning of the red state "party line" I know I am. I respect your right to say it. Just so tired of you guys point of view.
the framework is between poor and blacks. these so call numbers are not looking at the redlining and systematic destruction of the black interests in this racist environment.
this is a designer threat and as it was in san francisco in the 80's and now the elements are able to be directly targeted at all black do to the research in africa. it is purely genocide...
What about those people that are allergic to condoms. I think its better to get educated about STD's, learn how to check for them (encourage the sale and marketing of cheap and effective self testing ) and also give more publicity to the numerous, safe and VERY effective chemical barriers that can be used to prevent STD's. Any one that has studied infection control (or food handling) will know that condoms are ineffective for preventing microbial based STD's, unless you follow procedures used by surgeons and food handlers. Microbes can easily travel from sex organ to hand to outside of condom as well as every other part of the un covered body.
[[Moderator notes: A few comments have been removed or edited for violating the WNYC posting policy. Please remain civil, on topic, and productive. Thanks.
-BL Producer-]]
Allergic to condoms? I'm sure there are many people out there who suffer from this, but I seriously doubt this is a huge factor in the high number of abortions in the low-income communities. I don't know, all of this talk just sounds so condescending to me.
For 3 decades the word "abortion" has been demonized by the supposed "pro-life" community. I have observed time & time again their out-sized success w/only one group: poor, inner-city, black girls. How sad, to have a child sobbing in the tenth grade class you teach in the Bronx, sobbing because she is pregnant & of course, she cannot have an "abortion." How sad to see her jump with hope when you suggest she "terminate" the pregnancy. I do believe this is the group to which the "pro-life" movement can point with the most success. These children believe abortions are murder - and murder is, most assuredly, a sin. When asked about sex outside the "covenant" of marriage, these same children will tell you that this is OK. Asked about "fornication," and they will shudder. "Fornication" is a sin. This they hear every Sunday in church. Were we to spend more time educating these girls, giving them control not only of their bodies, but of their vocabularies, we might begin to see these devastating numbers change.
Your host and guests probe many causes but desperately avoid the obvious cause as well as solution: failure for these individuals to take personal responsibility. As a result of this poor attitude everyone else has to pay the cost. I shudder to think that I, who consider myself a liberal, would vote Republican, bur it is exactly these attitudes on behavior - irresponsible, reckless, unable to look introspectively and ask if the fault lies in themselves - that is making me tortuously consider doing so.
If you kill a pregnant women, the unborn child is considered a separate victim, separate charge.
Bravo again on the emphasis on education and empowering women and men to UNDERSTAND their bodies and choices. The real crime in our society is that we do NOT provide that education and that is one of the tools that maintains the underclass. Republicans are libretarian and as such if they have a right to carry guns and shoot them, we have a right to be "reckless" with our bodies. Education will allow us to suffer less consequences when we are "reckless".
I agree with Michael from Manhattan that education is the key. I had done a report in college on unwanted teenage pregnancies and found that unequivocally women would choose a career over having a child if that option was available. I disagree, however, in freely seeing "government" and "society" as amorphous entities and expecting them to (1.)take the place of family as the primary educators, and (2.)shoulder the consequences of their actions.
"Government" is you and me and as we can plainly see today resources are finite; I would have preferred that that dollar that goes to pay for the consequences of someone else's, yes, "reckless" behavior were to go somewhere else.
Did no one else pick-up on the appallingly inaccurate statement made by Dr. Fullilove that the mere fact that a pregnancy had occured, makes it obvious that no condom had been used?!
While the other guest, Dr. Jones, did make a point of noting that a high percentage of unplanned pregnancies occur /even when contraception was used/, she implied that failure-rates for condoms are attributable to nothing more than inconsistent and improper use, neglecting to note that /even with 'perfect use'/, published failure-rates for condoms are no lower than 2%.[1] "98% effective" may sound impressive but how many people actually realize that this means that for any one-year-period, two out of every 100 women who rely on condoms for contraception will become pregnant? And that is only for 'perfect use'; the failure-rates for 'typical use' are /much/ higher.
When 'experts' with credentials can get away with such inaccurate, dangerously misleading statements without their even being /questioned/-- let alone /corrected/-- is it any wonder that the rates of unplanned pregnancy, HIV and other Sexually-transmitted-infections and diseases are as high as they are?
NOTES:
[1] http://www.fda.gov/Fdac/features/1997/babytabl.html#a
http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHPRC/ch6_bar.html
In response to Michael from Manhattan August 14, 2008 - 10:36AM:
"What about those people that are allergic to condoms."
Latex-free condoms made of polyurethane have been available for some time. They come with a warning that those not allergic to latex should use latex condoms instead but I don't think there is any question that they still offer much better protection than sex with /no condom/.
http://www.contraceptiononline.org/slides/slide01.cfm?tk=23&dpg=24
shows polyurethane condoms having a much greater likelihood for breakage and slippage than latex condoms.
"...and also give more publicity to the numerous, safe and VERY effective chemical barriers that can be used to prevent STD's."
Can you name any such chemical barriers?
I do certainly share your contentions and concerns over the limitations of condoms but am not aware of any chemical barriers such as you describe.
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