Pro-Life Issues
The Link between Oral Contraceptives, Abortion and Breast Cancer
Thanks to a January, 2010 article by the Globe and Mail, the link between oral contraceptives, abortions and breast cancer is finally getting some attention.
While most cancers have declined in the past 30 years, breast cancer has increased in the United States by an alarming 40%. During this time there have been dramatic changes in the lifestyles of most women. This includes an explosion in the numbers of abortions, delayed child bearing and the use of powerful hormones for birth control.
Many scientists now acknowledge that an abortion before a first live birth increases the risk of breast cancer. Some studies also show an increased risk of cancer due to the birth control pill which works by increasing the amount of the hormone estrogen. In 2003, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons called on doctors to inform patients about a "highly plausible" relationship between abortion and breast cancer.
In February 2003, Dr. Louise Brinton, the National Cancer Institute's chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, served as chairperson at an NCI workshop in Bethesda, MD, to assess whether abortion was implicated as a breast cancer risk.
In the opinion of "over 100 of the world's leading experts," said the subsequent NCI report, including Dr. Brinton, the answer was no. At the time, 29 out of 38 studies conducted worldwide over 40 years showed an increased abortion-breast cancer risk, but NCI workshop experts nevertheless concluded it was "well established" that "induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk." (It should be pointed out that none of the authors of the 29 studies that did find a link - of anywhere from a 30% to 100% increase in breast cancer risk - were invited to that workshop.)
However, a study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, concluded in April 2009, showed a strong correlation between the use of oral contraceptives and a particularly deadly form of breast cancer. The study found that the connection was highest among women who began using oral contraceptives while they were teenagers.
The study was particularly noteworthy because it contained an admission by a researcher from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Dr. Louise Brinton – who had previously headed the Feb. 2003 study denying a link – that abortion also raised the rate of "triple-negative" breast cancer (a particularly deadly form of breast cancer that attacks women under 40) by 40% if a woman has had an abortion.
The study appeared in the April, 2009 issue of the prestigious journal "Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention". The study confirms an earlier study from 1996 by Janet Daling, who considers herself pro-choice. Daling found that abortion increases a woman's chances of getting breast cancer from between 20 to 50 percent. (To put things into context, governments and cancer agencies have done everything they can to reduce our exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke in order to protect us from contracting cancer. The increased risk of cancer from second-hand tobacco smoke is 20-30% according to the NCI.)
Two other similar studies in China and Turkey also showed a statistically significant relationship between abortion and breast cancer.
The study also showed that women with a family history of breast cancer who had abortions as teenagers increased their risk of getting breast cancer by 80 percent. Ever year, approximately 30,000 to 50,000 teenagers with a history of breast cancer in their family have an abortion.
Yet, despite the fact that this study was published ten months ago, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and other organizations supposedly dedicated to raising awareness about cancer have failed to warn women of the link between oral contraceptives, abortion and breast cancer.
