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The 14-year-old was two months pregnant and scared. Despite being insured and having her parents' permission, the Florida teenager was unable to find a doctor willing to perform an abortion.
She heard about Choices, a for-profit women's health center in Jamaica, Queens, found contacts on its website, and headed north.
"Her dad's a trucker," said Esther Pregue, the center's head social worker, who counseled the teenager. And
he arranged for her to get rides up here with other drivers he knew."
The politics of abortion has increasingly translated to policy changes that have driven more women to New York, a safe haven since becoming one of the first states to legalize abortion, in 1970. Recently, the number of out-of-state women getting abortions in New York state has spiked 26%, according to the latest figures available from Manhattan's Guttmacher Institute. In 2007, 4,600 women came to New York for an abortion, up from 3,650 in 2005. And providers say that trend appears to be on the rise since then.
Dwindling docs
The 26% uptick came as the number of abortions performed in the state dropped to 148,990 in 2007, down from 155,960 in 2005. Better birth control, the aging of the population, and - at least anecdotally - the wider acceptance of single motherhood...