During his three terms as Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg has shown an arrogance so imperious that he exists in a class all his own. He will be remembered as the mayor who was so concerned for the health and well-being of New Yorkers that he:
* Outlawed the sale of trans fats in any food sold in the city.
* Pushed for and obtained a ban on soda cups larger than 16 oz. at fountains.
* Raised taxes on cigarettes pushing the price of a pack to $12.
* Outlawed any smoking at all in bars.
* Mandated that all eating establishments, from Dunkin’ Donuts to 5-star restaurants list the caloric content of every menu item next to that item.
* Pulled all soda machines from public schools.
* Refused corporate food donations to city homeless shelters because the sodium, fat and fiber content of that food can not be verified.
etc, etc… The list goes on. Get the details in this great article.
Since New Yorkers can’t be trusted to care for their own health and eating habits, Mayor Mike will do it for us, even if it means less food for the homeless, food left over from corporate executive functions.
However, according to the city and state vital statistics data, from 2002 when Bloomberg took office, until the end of 2010 (2011, 2012 data are not yet available), 798,280 babies were slaughtered in their mother’s wombs in New York City. Extrapolating from those data, the number of intentionally killed babies will climb to over 1 Million by the time our health-conscious mayor leaves office. Get the numbers from Table 23 here and table 4.19 here.
That seems to be one choice that Mayor Mike feels comfortable leaving in the citizen’s hands, and so he has presided over nearly a million deaths, not passively, but enthusiastically. Lest we forget, two years ago the Mayor supported Bill 371 and signed it into law, a bill mandating onerous signage restrictions on pregnancy centers meant to keep women away.
I was there and gave testimony about the fact that 79% of all abortions in NYC are had by blacks and hispanics. In 2010 that percentage rose to 82.5%. Evidently those numbers are okay with the mayor. More than 1,200 abortions for every 1000 live births in the black community and not a word from the same mayor who won’t let the homeless share, literally, the same meals eaten by New York’s executives and donated to shelters.
Of course, Mayor Mike really doesn’t believe in the whole bodily autonomy mantra behind abortion, as indicated by his record of regulating what we put into our bodies at the lunch counter. He also doesn’t really believe in bodily autonomy for women in reproductive physiology either.
Bloomberg has pushed for hospitals to lock up baby formula and push women to breastfeed instead. If women request formula, they must first endure a state-encouraged lecture on the merits of breast milk. Such lectures at a time of rapidly changing hormonal levels and concomitant emotional fluxes, physical exhaustion from labor or C-section, are coercive. They also do not respect the choices made by women in the weeks and months prior to delivery: choices often made in conjunction with the babies’ fathers, obstetricians and pediatricians, and those who will be providing care when mother returns to work.
No such public health initiative on the many health risks inherent in abortion, of uterine scarring, infertility, hemorrhaging, damage to surrounding organs, infection, death, etc.
It’s beyond madness.
It’s perverse.
It’s what has become of a once-great political party.
Freedoms are stripped while license is promoted as freedom. It’s a tragic legacy, almost one million dead without a word of his famous admonitions, his pontifications on population health. An aging billionaire mayor who never addressed the despair of the black and hispanic communities, a despair so great that their share of New York’s abortions has risen to 82.5% of New York’s total in the last year for which data are available. What a lost opportunity. The mayor who fiddled while New York burned.
We can do better for our black and hispanic brethren. Who will lead?
