Detroit Abortions - the Elephant in the Room

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Detroit Free Press in response to a Rochelle Riley column which laments the decreasing number of children born in Detroit and attempts to explain the decrease.

A recent Rochelle Riley column lamented the drop in the number of babies born in the city of Detroit and the large number of ob/gyns who have exited the city. The column also attempted to explain the cause of this problem. One reason which was not mentioned was abortion. In 2008, there were 6,365 abortions performed on women who reside in Detroit. This is more than 1/4 of all abortions performed on Michigan residents even though the population of Detroit is less than 1/10 of Michigan's population. In 2007, there were 12,183 children born in Detroit. How can Detroit ever be reborn when more than a 1/3 of all children conceived by women who live in Detroit are aborted?