Abortion & Breast Cancer Link -- What the Experts Say
by Karen Malec
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer was formed about a year ago by a group of women in the Chicago area concerned about the fact that women were not being told by the National Cancer Institute (which is now being investigated by Congress), by their physicians (who are uninformed) and by anti-cancer organizations that there are now 27 out of 33 worldwide studies which have linked induced abortion to breast cancer. The first study was reported in an English language journal, GANN, in 1957. [Segi M et al. GANN (1957); 48 (Suppl): 1-63]. The next study was published in 1970 by the World Health Organization. [MacMahon B, et al. Bull Wld Health Org (1970); 43-209-21]. Our purpose is to educate women and to save lives. You can view our web site at http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com to learn more about a concerted effort to cover-up this politically incorrect information.
There are two ways in which abortion causes breast cancer.
First, experts universally agree that having a child provides a woman with a natural protection against breast cancer and that it is healthier for a married woman not to postpone her first full-term pregnancy. In fact, one Harvard study reported that each year that a woman postpones her first full-term pregnancy increases her breast cancer risk by 3.5%. [Dr. Brian MacMahon, Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, et al., "Age at any Birth and Breast Cancer Risk," International Journal of Cancer, 1983;31:701-704]. Obviously, having an abortion causes a woman to forego the protective effect that a full-term pregnancy would have afforded her.
Dr. Joel Brind, the President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, explains that most known risk factors for breast cancer involve estrogen overexposure. For example, women who reach puberty at an early age or menopause at a late age or who have fewer or no children, experience more menstrual cycles and are, therefore, exposed to higher levels of estradiol (a form of estrogen) and have a higher risk of breast cancer. Women who nurse their children, on the other hand, experience a reduction in the number of menstrual cycles and reduce their risk of breast cancer by doing so. (Dr. Joel Brind, "The Estrogen Connection," www.abortioncancer.com).
Second, 27 out of 33 worldwide studies have independently linked abortion with breast cancer. Thirteen out of fourteen of these studies are American studies which show a link. Five show more than twofold elevation in risk. Seventeen are statistically significant.
In 1996 Dr. Brind conducted a review and meta-analysis of the worldwide studies, most of which were done by abortion supporters. [Brind et al. (1996) Jrnl of Epidemiol Community Health 50:481-96]. On March 13, 2000 the U.K.'s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists became the first medical organization to warn its abortion practitioners, saying that Dr. Brind's review was "methodologically sound" and that the abortion-breast cancer link "could not be disregarded." ["Evidence-based Guideline No. 7: The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion," Press Release, March 13, 2000].
Dr. Brind has conservatively estimated that there are presently an additional 5,000 to 8,000 cases of breast cancer per year due to earlier abortions and that by the year 2020 there will be an additional 40,000 to 50,000 cases of breast cancer yearly. Will our health care system be able to cope with this?
Dr. Brind, by the way, is featured on the cover of the July, 2000 issue of Physician's Magazine, which is published by Focus on the Family. You can obtain a complimentary copy by writing Carrie Gordon Earll at Focus on the Family, P.O. Box 35500, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3550.
One especially disturbing study on women was done by Dr. Janet Daling at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1994. Dr. Daling, an abortion supporter, found that "among women who had been pregnant at least once, the risk of breast cancer in those who had experienced an induced abortion was 50% higher than among other women" [Janet R. Daling et al., "Risk of Breast Cancer Among Young Women: Relationship to Induced Abortion," 86 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1584, 1994].
Dr. Daling's study found that a teenager who has an abortion more than doubles her risk of getting breast cancer. Daling reported that a teenager with a family history of breast cancer who procures an abortion faces a risk of breast cancer that is "incalculably high." All 12 women in her study with this history were diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 45.
An attorney who authored an article for the Wisconsin Law Review last year on the subject of informed consent and the abortion-breast cancer connection, John Kindley, has argued that physicians who breach this duty face considerable legal liability and can be sued for medical malpractice. (John Kindley, www.johnkindley.com). He is currently representing a North Dakota woman in a false advertising suit against a clinic which was distributing a pamphlet containing false statements about the abortion-breast-cancer link.
Mr. Kindley explains the significance of the increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion:
"The real significance of a relative risk increase depends upon the background risk which is increased. For example, although smoking increases the risk of lung cancer by a factor of 10.0, the background risk of lung cancer for nonsmokers is very low. By contrast, an average American woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer is about twelve percent. A 1.3 relative risk increase from an induced abortion would therefore indicate about a four percent increase in absolute terms. Estimating a twenty-five percent mortality rate, this figure would suggest that about 1 out of 100 women who have had an induced abortion die from breast cancer attributable to the abortion" (johnkindley.com, Wisconsin Law Review article, p. 1620).
The abortion industry relies heavily upon the Melbye study to dispute the abortion-breast cancer link, however even this study reported that "{w}ith each one-week increase in the gestational age of the fetus...there was a 3 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer." The study reported no overall positive association between abortion and breast cancer. (Melbye et al. (1997) New England Journal of Medicine, 336:81-5). However, it has been severely criticized for errors of misclassification and data adjustment.. (Dr. Joel Brind, "Rotten in Denmark," www.abortioncancer.com). In addition, Melbye and colleagues attempted to correct these errors in a subsequent study in 1999, but did not admit that they were doing so and did not reanalyze their data after correcting their errors. [Melbye M., Wohlfahrt J., Anderson A..M., Westergaard T., Andersen P.K., "Preterm Delivery and Risk of Breast Cancer," Br. J. Cancer (1999);80:609-613]. Dr. Brind and his colleagues will be doing that job this summer because they believe that the 1997 study actually masked an increased risk of 40%.
In February of this year the New England Journal of Medicine, arguably the world's most influential medical journal, acknowledged the abortion-breast cancer link in the text of an article written by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in spite of having published the much criticized Melbye study three years ago. [Armstrong (2000) NEJM 342:564-71].
Planned Parenthood expert, Dr. Lynn Rosenberg, a Boston University Medical School epidemiologist, testified last year in a Florida case on the abortion-breast cancer link. When asked by an attorney whether a pregnant 15 year old who aborts her pregnancy has a higher risk of breast cancer than one who carries her pregnancy to term, Dr. Rosenberg answered, "Probably, yes." [Dr. Joel Brind, "ABC in the Courts: Dramatic ABC Testimony in Florida's Parental Notification Appeal," Abortion-Breast Cancer Quarterly Update, (Fall, 1999) Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 1].
In July of 1998 Congressman Tom Coburn M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist, questioned a representative from the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Edison Liu, during a Commerce Committee hearing on the State of Cancer Research. Congressman Coburn accused the NCI of misleading the public and "selectively releasing data" on the abortion-breast cancer link, in part because of the NCI's false claim on its web site in 1998 that the abortion-breast cancer link is "based on limited experimental data in rats, and is not consistent with human data." Congressman Tom Bliley is currently leading a congressional investigation into the widespread misrepresentation of the medical literature by the NCI. Under pressure from Congress, the NCI revised its web site last year, but its web page on the abortion-breast cancer link is conspicuous for what it still does not tell women (i.e. that there are 27 out of 33 worldwide studies linking abortion with breast cancer; that 13 out of 14 American studies associated this risk factor with abortion; that 5 studies report a more than twofold increase in risk; and that 17 are statistically significant).
Congressman Dave Weldon M.D. sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to all members of Congress on August 24, 1999 on the need to provide women with informed consent and called abortion a "significant health risk" and a "health care time-bomb."
Women have the right to know that there are now 27 out of 33 studies which show an abortion-breast cancer link. In fact, we find it paternalistic that women have been prevented from making informed choices about this women's health issue. we find it paternalistic that women have been prevented from making informed choices about this women's health issue.
"My people are destroyed," says the Lord in Hosea, "for lack of knowledge." We seek to reach women -- and those who love them -- with this life-saving information, and our cause is urgent. Will you work with us to ensure that the public is finally told the truth about abortion? We would be very pleased if you would help get the word out about the abortion-breast cancer link.
Sincerely,
Karen Malec, President
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
1-877-803-0102 Toll Free
http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
This item 2902 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
