A pause to reflect and cause to react

The New York State Department of Health, never known to rush into print, has just released a compendium of the most recent vital statistics it has compiled -- for 1995. What the book shows about abortion should give New Yorkers pause to reflect and then cause to react:

* In 1995, 134,405 abortions were performed in New York State. That's 368 abortions every day of the year...15 every hour...one every four minutes around the clock.

* Among the unborn children killed through abortion in 1995, 2,363 of them were older than five months gestation.

* Nearly 57 percent of the women who had an abortion in 1995 had at least one previous abortion. More than 3,600 women had had five or more abortions.

* In the counties encompassed by the Albany Diocese, 4,784 women had abortions in 1995 (Albany, 1,537...Columbia, 168...Delaware, 120...Fulton, 171...Greene, 151...Herkimer, 160...Montgomery, 149...Otsego, 155...Rensselaer, 525...Saratoga, 470...Schenectady, 699...Schoharie, 103...Warren, 221...Washington, 155).

* In New York, there is one abortion for every two births.

* In 1995, 167,566 people died, a total only slightly larger than the number of unborn children who died during the same 12 months. Daily throughout 1995, in other words, there were 368 abortions and 459 deaths from other causes.

* In 1995 in this state, there were 16 times as many abortions as deaths from AIDS.

* The leading cause of death in New York State is abortion, accounting for 134,405 deaths. In second place is heart disease, which claimed about half as many people.

After you have had time to pause and reflect on those sobering statistics, we trust you will be moved to action: joining or donating to a pro-life organization, phoning or writing a state legislator to urge actions that curtail abortion (such as outlawing partial-birth abortion), and praying for or helping women faced with problems that tempt them to abortion.

(For information about pro-life efforts in the Albany Diocese, call Laura Weber, 453-6677, or write her c/o Respect Life Office, 40 N. Main Ave., Albany, NY 12203.)

(04-30-98)
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