Four days after President Obama was sworn in for his second term, another large crowd hit Washington — pro-lifers who came by the busload to mark the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which overturned two centuries of law and prohibited the states from banning most abortions.
Each year at this time, this growing band of optimistic Americans marches in Washington, since that’s where the Supreme Court sits.
But they might consider marching in New York next year. For America’s biggest city is also America’s abortion capital.
So high is the overall abortion ratio here — 40 percent, twice the national average — even pro-choicers are shocked.
After the city released its abortion numbers for 2010, a poll found that two thirds of all New Yorkers thought the number was too high — including 57 percent of women who call themselves pro-choice.
Yet our political leaders offer nothing but silence about what this high rate says about our city.
This was brought into sharp relief two years ago in a press conference by some of the city’s leading clergymen. It featured a rare joint appearance by the archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, and the leader of the largest grassroots organization of fervently religious Jews, Rabbi David Zweibel of the Agudath Israel of America.
It also included African-Americans, such as the Rev. Michael Faulkner of Harlem’s New Horizon Church, as well as Leslie Diaz, a spokeswoman of Democrats for Life, whose husband is state Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx).
These men and women were united by the publication of the 2009 statistics for abortions in New York City: 87,273 abortions in that year, meaning that 41 percent of all pregnancies that didn’t end in miscarriage were ended by abortions.
In some ZIP codes and among African-Americans, the abortion rate reaches a ghastly 60 percent. For every 1,000 African-American babies born in the city that year, 1,448 were aborted. To the publication of these numbers the mayor stood mute.
Mark that the religious leaders didn’t spend a lot of time arguing that Roe was wrongly decided (though they no doubt feel that way).
No, they were making a broader point.
“We’ve been hearing for many years from pro-choice supporters that abortion should be ‘safe, legal and rare,’” Rabbi Zweibel said. “Well, if that’s the goal, we’ve clearly, abysmally failed — especially here in New York City.”
Rabbi Zweibel put the number of New York City pregnancies ended by abortion in the previous decade at more than 900,000. In other words, in the four decades since Roe the city may have lost the equivalent of a whole new borough. That’s a staggering loss of human potential for a city that needs all the New Yorkers it can get.
The run-up to Roe’s 40th has brought conflicting reports of American public opinion. A recent Pew poll found 63 percent of respondents saying, as Pew summarized it, “that they would not like to see the court completely overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.” Yet Time magazine’s cover story noted that, after the “epic victory” for abortion rights 40 years ago, activists have been “losing ever since.”
Young people especially are starting to question the pro-choice side of the debate, according to a dispatch of the Religion News Service published by the Washington Post’s Web site. The “‘pro-choice’ label,” it reported, “is losing its luster while a growing number of young people like to identify themselves as ‘pro-life.’” That seems to be reflected in the annual march, which has been growing younger with every year.
The rabbis who raised their concerns about New York’s 41 percent rate are not alone. Earlier this month, the two chief rabbis of Israel issued a letter supporting a pro-life group that operates in the Jewish state. The rabbis warned that “the wide public must be made aware of the gravity of killing fetuses, which is like actual murder.”
That letter won’t trigger an about face in an American Jewish community that has been notably pro-choice on abortion. But it’s being widely marked in an anti-abortion movement whose leading figures have been Catholics and Protestant fundamentalists.
Which is but one more reason that it would make sense for thepro-lifers to bring their rally to New York. From the size of yesterday’s crowd in Washington, pro-lifers could easily fill Yankee Stadium or one of the lawns in Prospect Park.
And if they can make it here, they can make it anywhere.
Seth Lipsky is editor of The New York Sun (nysun.com).