According to Crain’s, in most of the United States, 24 abortions are carried out for every 100 live births. In New York, 72 abortions occur for every 100 live births. That is a staggeringly sad and horrifying number.

The continuing boom in abortions—90,157 were performed in the city in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available—apparently means that many women are using abortion as their birth control method of choice. That concerns health advocates, who point out that the procedure sometimes causes complications and is more expensive than contraception. The high rate also shows that these women are not protected against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

What? Sometimes causes complications? What could they mean? Health related? Emotionally related? I’ve never read about such complications or seen anything in the news. So I read further on in the article to see any mention of what these complications could be but that thread is mysteriously almost completely missing from the article. It’s left until the end with simply “some complications.”

The article continues:

“No doctor would ever tell a woman that abortion was one of the choices she should rely on for contraception,” says Iffath Hoskins, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Why? Why not? The article doesn’t talk about that at all. Nothing about possible moral implications or possible side effects. Nothing. Just odd statements that no doctor would tell a woman to rely on abortion.

“Experts” quoted in the article blame the incredibly high abortion rate on…(drumroll please)…”not enough access to affordable contraception.” What? You thought it would be something different? I mean, are condoms really that expensive? Hard to find? So, I guess, we need a government program that has helicopters fly over the city dropping all forms and manners of contraception. But you know what, then there will be articles how short people don’t have the same access to contraception as tall people who are catching all the good ones before the short people can get them.

But finally we get down to some basics in the article by stating that even the experts say the high abortion rate is a problem. Why, you might ask? Because it’s expensive!

In a time of fiscal constraints, abortion is costing the state at least $16 million in Medicaid spending annually, and city taxpayers still more through a city Health and Hospitals Corp. policy that provides free abortions to poor women at its facilities. The surgical costs alone are between $1,000 and $1,800 per abortion, compared with the $425 average annual cost for birth control pills.

Finally, near the end of the story they bring up some non-financial costs to abortion but quickly shun it. Get ready because it passes quickly.

Surgical abortion always carries risks, though slight, of complications—including ones that can tear or scar the uterus and compromise a woman’s ability to have healthy children in the future, Dr. Hoskins says.

There is an ongoing debate about the emotional consequences of abortion. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health says that no studies have shown it damages women psychologically. Dr. Hoskins and others interviewed disagree and offer anecdotes about patients who felt guilt and regret.

The State Department of Health says that no studies have shown it damages women psychologically? Are they out of their minds or just stupid? I personally know three women who incurred severe emotional damage from their abortions early in their lives. No studies? This shows they don’t really care about women at all. It is keeping the money for abortions coming in. Back up the money train. That’s all they care about.

Here’s really the money quote for me near the end of the article.

“I’ve never had a patient who took the decision to end a pregnancy cavalierly,” says Dr. Hoskins.

72 abortions per 100 live births! That screams cavalier. It screams they’re cavalier about who they’re getting into bed with. It screams cavalier about disposing of the babies. It screams cavalier. It screams immoral. It screams unhealthy. And I don’t really care if it screams expensive. To me, that seems just a little beside the point.