New York State law does not place as many restrictions on abortion as laws in some other states, like requiring parental consent for minors, or requiring women to undergo counseling that discourages abortion or to go through a waiting period.

According to Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health issues, the high rate of unwed pregnancy and abortion among poor women is a sign of ambivalence. They are torn, she said, between the desire to have a baby and the realization that it would be hard to bring up a child as a single mother.

“In the U.S., most women want to have kids,” Ms. Jones said. “If you don’t have a lot of money, when is the responsible time to say, Now I want to have a child? How long are you supposed to put this off?”

That inner conflict could be seen recently in several women coming out of Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Center, a family planning and abortion clinic in Greenwich Village.

A 17-year-old girl there to pick up a friend said she had had an abortion in May. It was her second; the first was when she was 15. The girl said she sometimes used condoms. “But I wasn’t using them when I got pregnant,” she said. “I might use them more now, but I don’t know.” Like the other women outside the clinic, she asked not to be named to preserve her privacy.

A 20-year-old woman being helped by two male friends said she had her first abortion at 16, and also had a 7-month-old child. “It was an accident,” the woman said. “I used a condom every time, but I already have a kid, and I’m not ready for another one.”

Another woman, who was 22, said she had become pregnant after not using birth control because a doctor had told her she was infertile. “I’ve always been against abortion,” the woman, who lives on Staten Island, said. “But if I had a kid now, it would have a terrible life. I’d rather wait.”