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With Sam Alito set to be confirmed to the Supreme Court this week, lots of Americans are thinking about abortion-- namely, the strong likelyhood that Roe v. Wade could be overturned in the next few years. That would make getting an abortion in many states impossible (not that it's easy now, with all the restrictions Republican-controlled legislatures have recently passed.) Thank God, then, that New York has a long pro-choice tradition, and abortion will be legal here until the Republican storm-troopers pry the foreceps our of our cold, dead hands. The Daily News has a good article today with some NYC abortion facts:
For every 100 babies born in New York City, women had 74 abortions in 2004, according to newly released figures that reaffirm the city as the abortion capital of the country.And abortions for out-of-town women performed in the city increased from 57 to 70 out of every 1,000 between 1996 and 2004, a subtle yet noticeable trend that experts say may reflect growing hurdles against the procedure in more conservative parts of the country.
The new Vital Statistics report released by the city Department of Health this month shows there were 124,100 live births, 11,700 spontaneous abortions and 91,700 induced abortions in the city in 2004.
That means 40 out of 100 pregnancies in the city ended in a planned abortion - almost double the national average of 24 of 100 pregnancies in 2002, estimated by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a Manhattan-based nonprofit group that researches reproductive health issues.
New York already provides a shelter for many American women who can't get an abortion in their home state. If Alito and his cronies manage to outlaw a woman's right to choose, New York should seize the opportunity. We should triple the number of abortion clinics here. Hotels should offer weekend packages-- get an abortion, see a Broadway show. Planned Parenthood should offer free taxi service from the airport to anyone with a postive pregnancy test. You get the idea! It's a win-win situation: women will get access to the quality reproductive health-care they deserve, and the New York tourism industry will laugh all the way to the bank-- after all, if there's anything our city loves more than giving legal abortions, it's the sweet smell of cash! [Related: if you have some extra cash, and want to donate to a very worthy cause, consider Planned Parenthood's NYC division.]
Jake Dobkin is the publisher of Gothamist. He thinks that without reproductive freedom, women are not much better off than slaves.
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I'm for it. Where's the petition. Revolt NYC! I say we wall off all of NYC (except maybe Staten Island) and turn it into a liberal mecca. Anyone that wants to be for true freedom and choice will be allowed in. If you're convicted of bigotry or trying to take away someone's personal freedom, it's banishment for you.
After the NYC revolution, personal freedom will be brought back for real this time. No moralistic hate mongers using fear and intimidation to try and take away our freedoms.
In the new New York, you will be allowed to have true freedom. You will be allowed to do anything you want as long as it doesn't harm anyone else or their property.
Revolt NYC!
Jake, I know you are being cheeky here, but having 74 abortions for every 100 births in NYC is not a GOOD thing.
Slaves to what, sex? If you dont want a baby, keep your legs closed people (that goes for you too, guys). God gave you a brain, feel free to use it.
Of course, rape and incest is a completely different story.
James, like a typical leftist your hypocrisy rings loud and clear. You believe others are entitled to their opinions unless theyre at odds with your own.
jake, leave the abortion jokes to south park.
James, before you wall off your "liberal mecca", you should realize where you live. Last time I checked, most people in your "liberal mecca" voted for a Republican mayor... several times running. That don't sound so liberal to me.
Jake, I'm absolutely pro-choice, but anyone who even jokingly refers to abortions in the way you just have, should sit down and have a heart to heart with somebody who's had to make that choice. And seeing as I'm hard pressed to believe that you haven't had such a conversation, you should probably learn to have a bit more empathy for a serious situation... having 74 abortions for every 100 births is sad, not a badge of honor (even when combined with sarcasm)
who is being sarcastic? i believe 100% in everything i wrote, and i'm dead-serious. reproductive rights are very important to me, and if other states won't provide them, i believe that it's a moral imperative for new yorkers to step up. it's one of the major civil-rights causes of our time.
jake, what in the hell is the matter with you? you are ruining what was once an excellent website. stop posting before it's too late.
i'm like a few of the other commenters in that i'm 100% pro choice yet i'm also a republican. but to joke in your exact "tongue in cheek manner " is a disgrace. do you know anyone who's had an abortion? i doubt it. if you did, you just might treat this matter with the seriousness and candor it deserves.
dude, please heed my advice and stop posting on gothamist. go back to your behind the scenes work as the publisher. because if you don't, your ego, your foolishness and your smug liberal disrespect will just ruin this favorite website of mine.
I'm confused. Is it 74 out of 100, or 40 out of 100?
Even if you are pro-choice, this is a poor, insensitive posting.
Cheeky or not, if you gots extra green, give it to the New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF), which provides financial assistance to low-income women who cannot afford to pay for an abortion themselves.
www.nyaaf.org
You can also get info through NYAAF on volunteer programs that host women who come to NYC from out-of-state for abortions (due to their states' more restrictive abortion legislation).
Dear God, where is an editor when you need one? Jake, its alright to admit error once in awhile; your critics might even think more of you for it.
Its callous attitudes towards abortion like yours (heck, why not turn abortion into a tourist spectacle? clear out the NASDAQ market site in Times Square and turn it into an operating room!) that lead reasonable people to view it with increasing abhorrence.
In regards to Alito, I think it's time the democrats put additional pressure on the FDA to approve or deny the application to make the morning-after pill available over-the-counter.
The statistics listed by the Daily News indicate the public need to safely terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Increased availability of emergency contraception should be a non-partisan issue, as it allows a woman to prevent pregnancy after sex but before conception. It could breech the political stand-off on the Roe Vs Wade decision. Why can't both sides of the isle come together on this?
James, before you wall off your "liberal mecca", you should realize where you live. Last time I checked, most people in your "liberal mecca" voted for a Republican mayor... several times running. That don't sound so liberal to me.
Our Republican mayor is pro-choice. A little research into your criticism would be nice.
stop lecturing jake on how his vagina should be regulated.
Mike, Jake is playfully suggesting that we radically destigmatize abortion. You've taken quite a conceptual leap in comparing his idea with that of turning the act of abortion itself into a "tourist spectacle." Let's not go overboard in our zeal to criticize. (Critical thought: good; theatrical criticism: bad.)
I don't think anyone needs to take this post seriously. Jake is just another angry liberal fag with a cat who needed to vent. Now he can go back to taking pretty pictures.
Jake, before you adopt such a cavalier attitude about the abortion experience, perhaps you should hire a doctor to shove an icy-old pair of salad tongs up your rear and dig around inside for a while. And then you try going to a Broadway show.
Good God, I have finally found a suitable heir to the Throne of the Village Idiot who can inherit the crown from my weary, deforested pate.
I love pate. I'm not even really sorry for the geese who get force fed. I love the pate with the peppercorns on the outside.
Even if Roberts' Supreme Court overturns Roe, which is pretty unlikely, abortion will not be "illegal." Rather, it will be up to the States to decide how to regulate abortion, if at all. Before Roe, New York State had very progressive reproductive rights laws, and in fact, most states were headed in New York's direction.
Gothamist reader is quite right; at this point, Roe v Wade is just a recruiting tool for the right wing. Overturning it would make little to no difference in the access to abortion in the US; it would still be perfectly legal in normal states and difficult/impossible in many red states -- as it is now. The ruling elites of the right wing do not want it overturned -- it's all they have in many places.
Getting rid of it would actually help Democrats and the US left (such as it is) in general; many people vote Republican only because they think overturning Roe v. Wade would mean something. It would not.
Its just amazing to me how much the left bring this up. At every chance, every opportunity, every turn that has anything to do with anything political or legal lies the boogey monster of overturning roe vs. wade.
I think that if it ever did actually happen it would be the worst disaster on the face of the earth.. for democrats. What would they have as a reflexive issue to demonize the right about?
if Roe is overturned, it absolutely would not prohibit anyone from getting an abortion - it would just affirm that the federal government under the constitution and bill of rights is not authorized to have the ability to regulate abortion. (Ask the medical marijuana folks what they feel about the federal governments ability to regulate activities that should be technically out of their reach, by the way)
And poster 20 and 21 are quite right - every state would then have to draw their own legislation regarding abortions, in which case New York would still offer them. Then in the worst case scenario that like 2 states actually manage to be able to ban abortion, people from those states would still be able to come here(and other states) to be able to have them performed under New York's more lenient laws regarding them. Just the same as right now.
So what's the huge fuss about, anyways?
Jake, no matter what one's stand on Abortion is (I really don't think this is a simple issue), IMO, "every 100 babies born in New York City, women had 74 abortions in", is not a statistic to be proud of.
I think people, men and women, should be more responsible and use contraception more often.
Jake, posts like yours do more to hurt reproductive rights that help it. Most people who are pro-choice understand the serious, somber and difficult choice it represents. Yet your cavalier "lets use it for tourism" attitude, even in jest, is just messed up, and confirms the opinion many anti-choice people already have about pro-choice people. So all you are doing is reinforcing prejudices, and making any sort of discussion on this issue nearly impossible.
"Our Republican mayor is pro-choice. A little research into your criticism would be nice."
Benjamin, my point was that NYC is not even close to the "liberal mecca" that James is wishing it to be. I'm fully aware that Mayor Bloomberg is pro-choice. There are plenty of other non-liberal talking points that I could have raised to debunk the wide-held assumption that NYC is 100% liberal... electing a Republican mayor was just one example. (BTW - It seems that his Democratic opponents were also pro-choice, so it's not a stretch to say that he won based on other "non-liberal" policies.)
I won't tell you whether abortion should be legal or not. What I do know is that 40% of all pregnancies or 74 abortions for every 100 live births is not something to rejoice in. This just saddened my day a little.
If I'm going to be such an apologist for the Clintons (first Hillary, now this) I should get on their payroll, but nevertheless, here goes:
Bill Clinton once said that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare."
An abortion is never a cause for celebration and those who take this stand, whether intentionally or not, only feed into the hands of our enemies, who draw the stereotype of those seeking abortions as amoral, their choices as cavalier, and their lifestyles as frivolous bordering on the homicidal. None of which is true.
The main issues comes down to one group imposing its morality on another group that may not share it. It's an anti-tolerance issue, IMHO. I'm all for naming NYC the tolerance capital of the world, where ten-page questions aren't given two-word answers, but I'm not sure saying "f*** you and your morality!" is going to do much beyond get our liberal rocks off.
I like the "if you want to change the world, start with your block" approach to these issues... if you are so pro-choice, do something to defend the choice (volunteer, donate, etc.). And I'm all for satire, assuming this is satire. But if we're going to stand for something, let's aim for something higher than "we can be as big a group of assholes as the assholes on the right."
I can't even believe such a statistic like that would ever show up this world....I guess we really are going to hell in a hand basket. If 75% of people have no respect for unborn life, which is what it is, not a fetus, not just a "something" inside of you, it is a living person with a soul, then I dont' know where we are going from here. Be more responsible yes, but please, have a heart, and use your head. Every single one of you is only here because your parents were respectful and loving enough to realize you will contribute to this world and gave you the gift of life. I'm 100% pro-life and think some more people should hop on that band wagon, or think of where you would/wouldn't be today.
Stephen, were you aware of this? Because you should be.
Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party, reportedly to avoid the crowded field in the Democratic primary. [wikipedia]
Bloomberg only switched his label to Republican to win an election. I agree with Benjamin, a little research into your criticism would be nice.