NPC agrees on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
Rochester Area Right To Life
NPC agrees on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link |
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Rochester Area Right To Life |
National Physicians Center Acknowledges Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
| Need real proof of the link between abortion and breast cancer? Not
ethically possible, but we don't need it. Speaking of the high bar Madigan has set for women’s health - proof of a link, Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, explained why Madigan’s statement is erroneous. She said: "The only proof would be if you took 100 closely matched women and impregnated them, aborted 50 of them and then followed them to see who got more breast cancer. Since that is an unethical thing to do to a human, we have been able to do that in rats. Russo and Russo 1980 showed that more aborted rats get breast cancer when exposed to a carcinogen than virginal rats or rats that have had litters of pups. [1] However, there are six criteria that epidemiologists use to determine if an association is in fact causal. Certainly the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) studies show a causal relationship. "First, the exposure or risk must precede the disease, which it does in all of the studies. Second, the preponderance of the studies must show an association. In the case, of the ABC link, 28 out of 37 studies report an association between abortion and breast cancer. [Reference: www.AbortionBreastCancer.com ] Third, the studies must include statistically significant studies. There are 17 statistically significant studies. "Fourth, there must be a plausible biologic basis. In the case of the ABC link, if a pregnancy is terminated before 32 weeks, the woman is left with increased numbers of type 1 and 2 lobules which are most sensitive to carcinogens. It is only after 32 weeks that type 3 and 4 lobules resistant to carcinogens are formed. It is the same reason why women who have premature deliveries before 32 weeks more than double their risk of breast cancer and why women who have children have a lower risk of breast cancer. Women who never have children are also at increased risk because of their lack of type 3 and 4 lobules. "Fifth, there should be a dose effect, meaning the more you are exposed to a risk, the higher the risk. In the case of the ABC link, this is more difficult to show than the case of a drug that causes cancer. However, Melbye et al. 1997 showed that for every week you delay an abortion, the risk of breast cancer increases by 3 percent, so that his study showed a statistically significant increased risk of breast cancer among women with second trimester abortions. [2] "Sixth, there must be a relative risk of over 3.0 or a 200% increased risk. In subsets of women, the relative risk is greater than 3.0. Teenagers less than age 18 who have abortions between 9 and 24 weeks have an 800% increased risk or a relative risk of 9.0 according to the NCI commissioned study, Daling et al. 1994. This team found a relative risk of infinity among teenagers procuring abortions when they also had a family history of breast cancer. This was because all women in her study who had a family history and an abortion at age 18 or younger developed breast cancer by the age of 45. [3] "As a breast surgeon, I became aware of younger and younger patients with breast cancer. When I had a large number of patients in their thirties with breast cancer, I analyzed my own data. Thirty percent of women in their thirties with breast cancer had no family history, but did have abortions. Whereas in my older patients, only 15% had had abortions. Every person in this country is aware that breast cancer is becoming a disease of young women. It is not a grandmother’s disease any more." |
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer reported today that the National Physicians Center for Family Resources has released a CD in which increased breast cancer risk is cited as a long-term medical complication resulting from abortion. The CD is intended to be a resource for parents and health educators to assist them in answering children’s questions about puberty, reproduction and sexual health. It says:
"During a normal pregnancy, the female’s body produces high levels of the hormone estrogen. This causes the milk producing glands in the breast tissue to become active, a process that is completed during the third trimester of pregnancy. When this change is complete, it helps protect against breast cancer. Elective abortion interrupts these changes in the breast tissue, which makes the cells more likely to become cancerous. Miscarriages generally do not result in a higher breast cancer risk because most pregnancies that miscarry do not produce very high amounts of estrogen."
Release of the CD comes at a time when a candidate for Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, has objected to her opponent’s promise to support a task force investigating the link between abortion and breast cancer. In a press conference on September 15, Madigan berated her opponent, Joe Birkett, and assured women that there is no "proof" of a relationship between abortion and breast cancer.
Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, asked "What is Madigan afraid of? A task force would simply examine the research on the subject. If she really cared about women, then she’d support it."
Madigan suggested that anti-cancer organizations do not recognize the link. However, the National Cancer Institute pulled down its website discussing the research in June 2002 because 28 Congressmen, including Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D., said in a letter addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommie Thompson that its web page addressing the research was "scientifically inaccurate and misleading." The web page contained a denial of a link. [4]
The National Physicians Center joins other medical organizations in recognizing the weight of the evidence. Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a 40 year old patients’ advocacy group which prides itself on its scientific integrity, told World Net Daily that the elevated risk is "substantial, particularly in women who abort their first pregnancy at a young age and who have a family history of breast cancer." [5]
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists released its paper evaluating the research earlier this year and said, "Informed consent should be informed. Women deserve the correct information. The evidence (of a link) is strong."
Mrs. Malec called upon Madigan to "do the honorable thing by retracting her inaccurate statement denying a link." She denounced anti-cancer organizations for having concealed the existence of extensive research on the subject since 1957. She called upon them "to put women’s health ahead of their fundraising needs and start telling us the truth about the significance of the research."
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.
References: 1. Russo & Russo (1980) Am J Pathol 100(2):497-512. 2. Melbye et al. (1997) N Engl J Med 1997 Jan 9; 336(2):81-5. 3. Daling et al. (1994) J Natl Cancer Inst 86(21):1584-92. 4. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith et al. (June 7, 2002) Letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommie Thompson. 5. John Dougherty, "Can doctors be sued over abortion? Those who don’t inform patients of breast cancer link could be targets," World Net Daily, <www.worldnetdaily.com>, March 27, 2002
Source: http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases.htm
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