Recent statistics have exposed a horrible trend in what was once a great city. Reports have shown that one in three pregnancies in Detroit end in an abortion. This alarming rate is compounded by the poverty and inner city issues in a bankrupt city. According to “The Detroit News:”
- In 2012 [there were] 5,693 abortions out of 18,360 pregnancies, making the abortion rate 31 percent
- In all of Michigan in 2012 there were 22,699 abortions out of 160,219 pregnancies
- The number of abortions by population of 37.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-44
- It’s three times greater than Michigan’s statewide rate
Surprisingly, another factor has also been indicated in the increase level of abortions: a lack of access to affordable contraception. Taxpayer funding for contraceptive subsidies in 2006 was $5 million, in 2013 the bankrupt city dropped the amount to $700,000. Since over half the number of pregnancies are unplanned, the lack of affordable contraception is a serious public health issue.
Dr. Susan Schooley, head of the Department of Family Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit states, “Both routine primary care and family planning-specific primary care are not available in Detroit. To the extent that a significant proportion of those (pregnancies) are unplanned, it leads to all these decision-making options of which abortion is one lousy choice.”
In the city of New York for example, public health officials have stated that there were more abortions than live births among black women. The continued abortions of black babies are startling. Schooley comments, “We’re seeing a picture that looks more like some Third World country than someplace in the United States.” This combined with the effects of what the CDC has called Hood Disease continues to be a blight on inner city blacks most of all.
