August 14, 2013
Letter to the Editor of The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
on NARAL's Attack on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Re: Your story, "Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Condoms Are Porous, Abortions Cause Breast Cancer,” By Jessica Vanegeren, August 13, 2013.
Regarding your story discussing NARAL's self-serving report deriding crisis pregnancy centers for warning women about abortion and increased breast cancer risk, you may want to read a Bangladesh study reporting a 20-fold risk elevation for women who have abortions.
National Cancer Institute branch chief Dr. Louise Brinton co-authored a 2009 study led by Jessica Dolle that concluded unequivocally that induced abortion and the Pill (oral contraceptives) are risk factors for breast cancer. They reported a 6.4-fold increased risk of the deadly, triple-negative breast cancer among women who started using the Pill before age 18.
The World Health Organization lists the Pill containing estrogen and progestin as a Class 1 cancer-causing agent that increases risk for cancers of the breast, liver and cervix. The Pill reduces risk for two cancers (endometrial and ovarian), but there are four times as many breast cancer cases in the U.S. yearly than there are cases of endometrial and ovarian cancers combined. Furthermore, it's unwise and probably unprecedented for doctors to urge women to take a cancer-causing agent to prevent cancer.
Scientists from the world's most heavily populated countries in India and China have recently reported high risks for women with abortion histories, including a 6-fold increased risk among women in India and a 2.5-fold risk elevation among Chinese women with three or more induced abortions. Additionally, a 2011 Armenian study found abortion nearly triples a woman's risk.
A list of 73 epidemiological studies at the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute's website demonstrates that the vast majority of studies support an independent link between induced abortion and increased breast cancer risk. An independent link means that abortion leaves the breasts with more places for cancers to start.
That doesn't count the biological and experimental evidence supporting an independent link between induced abortion and increased risk.
Nor does it include the fact that medical texts and medical authorities have long agreed that increased childbearing, starting at a younger age (before age 25), and increased lifetime duration of breastfeeding sharply reduce breast cancer risk. By contrast, delayed first full term pregnancy, childlessness, small family size, and little or no breastfeeding are accepted risk factors for breast cancer. On this basis alone, it's incontrovertible that the woman who chooses an induced abortion has a greater risk than does the woman who chooses a full term pregnancy.
Finally, a 2006 review of studies on the breast cancer risk of the Pill published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings reported a statistically significant 1.52-fold increased risk of breast cancer among parous women with histories of using the Pill for four or more years before first full term pregnancy.
NARAL's report serves only to line the pockets of its abortionists and reveal their complete disdain for women's lives.
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
P.O. Box 957133
Hoffman Estates, IL 60194