7/86Abortions per 1,000 live births in New York City: 852
11/89Percentage of Americans who say they would never vote for someone who disagrees with their view on abortion: 56
3/89Chances that a pregnant American woman will choose to have an abortion: 1 in 4
6/89Percentage of American Southerners who say they support Roe v. Wade: 53
6/89Chances that an American woman will have an abortion in her lifetime: 1 in 2
9/89Percentage of U.S. counties in which no doctor’s offices, clinics, or hospitals perform abortions: 82
2/90Percentage of Catholic members of the House who voted last fall to federally fund abortions for rape victims: 37
4/90Number of times President Bush used the words family, children, and kids in his State of the Union address: 30
2/91Estimated portion of all pregnancies ending in abortion that are the result of contraceptive failure: 1/2
5/92Percentage of women who cite a suspected fetal-health problem among the reasons for their abortion: 13
6/92Chances that an American having an abortion will describe herself as a born-again or Evangelical Christian: 1 in 6
7/92Percentage change, since last year, in the membership of the National Abortion Rights Action League: +46
7/92Estimated number of bills restricting abortion that have been introduced in state legislatures since 1989: 600
8/92Portion of medical school obstetrics-gynecology programs that offer routine training in first-trimester abortions: 1/8
8/92Chances that a Republican woman running for Congress this fall is pro-choice: 1 in 3
7/93Estimated amount of damage caused by vandalism, arson, and bombings at abortion clinics each day last year: $6,500
Chances that a typical plan covers oral contraceptives: 1 in 3
11/94Percentage of Americans who believe that killing a doctor who performs abortions is a “justifiable act”: 3
2/95Percentage of ob/gyn chief residents graduating each year who have never performed a first-trimester abortion: 47
4/96Ratio of the number of ob-gyns over the age of 64 who perform abortions to those under the age of 40 who do: 2:1
Number performed on born-again or evangelical Christians: 250,000
8/96Percentage of Republicans who said in May that the party’s platform should “remain silent” on abortion: 28
3/98Chance that an American who believes abortion is murder also believes that it is “sometimes the best course”: 1 in 3
5/98Percentage of parents who say that they would abort a fetus found to be predisposed to obesity: 11
1/99Ratio of the number of state ballot initiatives to limit abortion voted on last year to those advocating animal rights: 1:3
4/99Chance that a U.S. abortion clinic suffered a severely violent attack from protesters last year: 1 in 4
10/00Percentage of House votes cast by Dick Cheney and Al Gore on abortion between 1979 and 1984 that were the same: 93
12/00Number of the one hundred countries with the world’s highest birthrates that have approved the abortion pill RU-486: 0
4/03Amount the U.S. withheld from the U.N. Population Fund last year, citing links to forced abortions in China: $34,000,000
Months after the State Department had cleared the U.N. of such connections that the funds were withheld nonetheless: 2
11/04Years since U.S. law began defining aborted fetuses with “pulsation of the umbilical cord” as legal persons: 2.5
12/05Estimated number of U.S. abortions that were prevented in 2000 through use of the morning-after pill: 51,000
2/05Number of states where women seeking abortions are required to be told that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer: 3
Number of the eighty-nine experts convened in 2003 by the National Cancer Institute who found any evidence of such a link: 1
4/06Ratio, in the United States, of antiabortion “pregnancy centers” to abortion clinics: 6:1
6/06Percentage of U.S. abortions in 1973 and 2002, respectively, that took place in the first trimester: 38, 61
9/06Number of convictions that have been handed down so far under India’s 1996 law to ban sex-determination tests: 1