Chelsea Has The Highest Rate Of Abortions In New York City

A study released by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reveals Chelsea to have the highest abortion rate in New York City, with 67.23 percent of pregnancies ending in abortion.

Jamaica, Central Harlem, Greenwich Village, and Bedford-Stuyvesant also ranked high on the list. The neighborhood with the lowest abortion rate is the Upper East Side, which also happens to be Manhattan's safest neighborhood as well.

The neighborhood breakdown came after the Chiaroscuro Foundation, which "believes that every individual deserves an opportunity to experience life’s bounty—and that every human being first of all deserves to live" requested the city's 2009 abortion statistics be further outlined by zipcode, according to Gothamist.

The foundation is among the many, including religious leaders, who were deeply critical of the city's sex education programs after research released earlier this year revealed almost 40 percent of all New York pregnancies end in abortion, a number Archbishop Timothy Dolan deemed "downright chilling."

Pro-choice groups and health officials argued the high abortion rate is due to a number of complex social and legal factors, including the lack of sex education programs and general public ignorance, especially in young women living in poverty.

Joan Malin, Planned Parenthood of New York City's CEO, underscores the economic factor in the broader New York study from last spring.

"Many of the women we see are leading chaotic lives," she said. "In my mind, it's related to all the factors of poverty that make it more challenging and difficult to get services."