ABC: the Abortion/Breast Cancer Link

Y'all probably know about the latest broohaha with Planned Parenthood. The Susan G. Komen Foundation (which is fighting breast cancer) decided to remove funding from P.P.  Then they quickly did an about-face and changed their minds.

Which caused me to post a little comment on Facebook.

Which produced a firestorm of response.

I simply stated my disappointment that Komen would cave to pressure, 1) when P.P. has been shown not to offer mammograms, and 2) that many studies have indicated that abortions can lead to breast cancer. 

I mean, it seems obvious that a foundation committed to fighting breast cancer ought not give money to a company that performs the most abortions in the U.S. Right?

I was stunned to find that among my friends there are deniers -- those who patently refuse to even consider the possibility that abortions can increase a woman's breast cancer risk. One friend kept mentioning the "fact" that abortion does not cause cancer, as if divine fiat had descended from above and declared it in the clouds.

So, this post will give you information, if you want to read it, about the link between abortion and breast cancer. The logical science behind it isn't hard to understand. A termination of pregnancy (especially a first pregnancy) stops the development of breast tissue. Without the completion of the pregnancy, the tissue does not become cancer-resistant; it's left in a state of mid-development that makes it more susceptible to cancer.

Some of these links will seem a bit dry and scientific. Sorry. Here's a page with a list off the various studies on this topic, dating back to 1957, with a column showing if a positive link was indicated in the study.

Here's part of an article by Karen Malec, head of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, a group committed to educating women on the risks for cancer, and dislodging the cover-up and denial in the medical community. (I mean, can you imagine the lawsuits from cancer patients, regarding this? Especially with so many published studies? The medical community wants this to stay very quiet.) Malec's article is available in full, but I could only find it in PDF format. 

Here's the homepage for the ABC Coalition. It's a very helpful site with links and PDF links to many studies, published articles, and letters.

From that site, I was able to find this document, a scholarly paper written by attorney John Kindley and published in the Wisconsin Law Review. Scroll down past the two opening sections to the smaller type, where the Table of Contents is listed. 

Since some of the best documents are PDFs, let me list them here for you, and then you may more easily find them online, and download them yourself for reading:

Karen Malec: "The Abortion-Breast Cancer Link: How Politics Trumped Science and Informed Consent"

Dolle, Daling & White: "Risk Factors for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Women Under the Age of 45 Years"

(Here's a link for the abstract of this document; there's a place to click for the full text also.

Karen Malec: a piece of correspondence, "More on the Adverse Effects of Abortion" -- a shorter read, but very good

Patrick Carroll: "The Breast Cancer Epidemic: Modeling and Forecasts Based on Abortion and Other Risk Factors" 

I think I found this one from the Coalition ABC website too. Carroll talks about the various studies that have been done.

Perhaps most intriguing is this statement, made under oath, by a doctor who had tried to stir up a recognition of this factor for breast cancer, among her colleagues. Here's what she said:

In a lawsuit filed against Planned Parenthood Federation of American in California Superior Court for falsely advertising the alleged safety of abortion, Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., a New Jersey breast surgeon, declared under oath that members of the nation’s medical elite are aware that abortion causes breast cancer. However, they refuse to say so publicly because it is ‘too political.’ She said to the court:

"In September 1999 I wrote a letter to the president and each of the board members of my medical society, the American Society of Breast Surgeons. My letter … said that doctors… need to get this information (about abortion and breast cancer) to the public, and asked that an expert be invited to address the Society on this issue. Some time later I called the president, Dr. Rachel Simmons, and she told me, apologetically, that she presented it to the board but they felt it was 'too political.'

"In March 2000 I attended the Miami Breast Cancer Conference…. I asked the conference director, Dan Osman, M.D. if he knew there was a link between abortion and breast cancer. I was stunned when he said that he did. I asked him why there couldn't be a presentation about it at the meeting. He said it was 'too political.'

"Over the past three or four years, I have spoken with many authorities and people in a position to be well informed. Some have been straightforward and said they know it is a risk factor but felt it was 'too political' to speak about. Others have been evasive…. Some have been openly hostile…. Some initially hostile doctors … debated it with me and have changed their minds. Some pro-choice doctors have come to agree it is true and do tell their patients about the risk. Some doctors who were initially skeptical have started obtaining a complete reproductive history on their patients and found as I did that … cases of breast cancer in young women are associated with an abortion history…." (Bernardo et al. v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America et al.)

All that we're asking is that women be given full disclosure of the potential risk.  That's all. But some people are fighting it tooth and nail. Why would anyone not want women to be aware of a potential risk for breast cancer? Because abortion is the sacred cow of the liberal left. It is untouchable. Nothing -- even the lives of the women involved -- is more precious than saving abortion as a legal medical procedure. Any move that attempts to restrict it in any way must be attacked by its supporters with utmost aggression.

Read. Make yourself aware. Decide for yourself if you see enough research and study to allow for caution, for a warning to women. Breast cancer has sky-rocketed in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973. If we're serious about fighting cancer, we need to look under every rock.