3 out of 4 medical studies indicate significant cause and effect…

Even though 27 out of 35 studies published since 1957 have linked abortion with breast cancer, pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood continue to deny such a link exists and refuse to inform prospective abortion recipients of the studies.

Led by group president Karen Malec, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is working to inform the public about a link since abortion providers, as a rule, do not.

“Scientists have been studying this link for 44 years. We are appalled that women haven’t been informed about the existence of these studies. Why are women being excluded from this discussion about their own health care?” she remarked. “We intend to correct this grave injustice.”

ABC Coalition volunteers in Chicago last month distributed brochures at breast-cancer awareness walks that inform readers about abortion-breast cancer research. The group’s web address was also advertised on a Colorado Springs Sky Sox stadium billboard for the baseball team’s home-season opener on April 13.

Malec says her organization is alarmed that despite almost a half century of research demonstrating a link between abortion and breast cancer, “women still have not been included in this discussion about their health care. It is indefensible that this information has been censored from women,” she said. “The public was informed when only 5 out of 7 studies linked cellular phones with brain cancer,” Malec argued, “so why aren’t women entitled to know that more than two dozen studies implicate abortion as a risk factor for this deadly disease? Tragically, the bar has been raised for this risk factor, and 1 in 100 women will die of abortion-induced breast cancer.”

As previously reported, breast cancer is linked to reproductive hormones, particularly estrogen. Although science has yet to define specifically what causes breast cancer, it is uncontested that the sooner a woman has her first child, the lower her risk of developing breast cancer.

According to Dr. Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and a leading researcher in what is commonly known as the “ABC link,” a woman’s estrogen level increases hundreds of times above normal upon conceiving – and one of the first physical changes to the pregnant woman’s body occurs in the breasts. That hormone surge leads to the growth of “undifferentiated” cells in the breast as the body prepares to produce milk for the coming baby. Undifferentiated cells are vulnerable to the effects of carcinogens, which can give rise to cancerous tumors later in life.

In the final weeks of a full-term pregnancy, those cells are “terminally differentiated” through a still largely unknown process and are ready to produce milk. Differentiated cells are not vulnerable to carcinogens. However, should a pregnancy be terminated prior to cell differentiation, the woman is left with abnormally high numbers of undifferentiated cells, therefore increasing her risk of developing breast cancer.

The percentage of risk increase is dependent on the age of a woman when she reaches puberty, when she first conceives and the length of time the pregnancy progresses prior to induced abortion. Most studies show a general increase in risk from 30 to 100 percent or more.

Spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, are not generally associated with increased risk, according to Brind, since they generally occur due to insufficient estrogen hormones to begin with.

Most birth-control pills work by producing hormonal activity similar to that which occurs when conception takes place, thereby making it a suspicious agent in ABC link research as well.

The United Kingdom’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released guidelines on March 13, 2000, to its abortion providers last year cautioning them that ABC link research “cannot be disregarded.” The group also examined a 1996 review of the worldwide studies done by Brind, saying the doctor’s work was “carefully conducted” and “had no major methodological shortcomings.”

And earlier this year, estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), which is taken by women after menopause, was added to the nation’s list of known carcinogens. ERT is largely the same chemical form of estrogen naturally created by a woman’s ovaries in pregnancy. A majority of the known risk factors for breast cancer are associated with an overexposure to estrogen.

Even the world’s most influential medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, has begun to change its tune about an ABC link, albeit quietly. Three years ago, the NEJM published a Danish study that denied the abortion-breast cancer link. Known as the Melbye study, researchers concluded that “induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer.” Also published in the NEJM was an editorial by a National Cancer Institute epidemiologist asserting that “a woman need not worry about the risk of breast cancer” when she contemplates an abortion.

But in the text of an article last year, entitled “Assessing the Risk of Breast Cancer” by Katrina Armstrong and her associates from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the following statement was made: “Other risk factors have been less consistently associated with breast cancer (such as diet, use of oral contraceptives, lactation, and abortion).” The statement, although far from a resounding declaration, represents a significant change from the journal’s previous position.

Yet, despite convincing evidence of the dangers of breast cancer from abortions and contraceptive use, the lucrative abortion industry continues to deny any link exists. Attacking the credibility of studies conducted by Brind and others, the abortion lobby claims there is no consensus in the scientific community on the subject, and so its patients are told they are not at risk.

“The Planned Parenthood position is that abortion poses no demonstrated health risks,” says Nancy L. Sasaki, president of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. “The link between induced abortion and breast cancer is a theory whose principal promoters oppose abortion regardless of its safety. The theory has not been borne out by research. While Planned Parenthood believes that women should have access to information about all factors that influence the risk of disease, PPLA also believes that women deserve information that is medically substantiated and untainted by a political agenda. Because the research community has not reached a consensus on breast cancer and abortion, Planned Parenthood advises women who are considering terminating a pregnancy that there is no currently demonstrated health risk from abortion that would warrant basing a decision on that factor alone.”

Malec and others involved in educating women regarding the abortion-breast cancer link, claim abortion proponents have a political motive for keeping women uninformed. If ABC link information becomes widely acknowledged, the mantra of “safe” abortions could be irreparably damaged.

“Our organization is pro-life for women,” asserted Malec. “Unfortunately, when it comes to this politically incorrect information, not everyone is pro-women’s health.”

© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

Written by Julie Foster for WorldNetDaily, and published on DrKelley.info, July 17, 2001. Embedded links may no longer be active (Ed. 12.29.10)

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