CALGARY, October 6, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During October, Canadians will see billboards with the message “Stop the cover-up” and a web address, www.abortionbreastcancer.ca The campaign, coordinated by the national educational pro-life group LifeCanada, and sponsored by pro-life groups across the country, will raise awareness of the link between abortion and breast cancer.
“There are over 50 studies worldwide that have shown that abortion increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer but women are never warned about this risk,” said LifeCanada President Joanne Byfield. “We hope to change that.”
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women. In 2005, an estimated 21,600 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,300 will die of it. The health establishment says most have no known risk factors.
Byfield countered that. She said that as early as 1957, researchers identified the link between breast cancer and abortion. Since then more than 70 studies have examined the link and 80% of them found an increased risk. The overall increase is 30% but among very young women and women who have a family history of breast cancer the risk is higher.
Byfield said she hopes that Canadians, and women in particular, will go to the site to learn more on the biology and the research. The website also challenges the positions of cancer groups in Canada and their refusal to acknowledge the research. “It is unconscionable that groups would ignore this large body of research,” said Byfield.
She pointed out that Health Canada advises women to avoid pesticides even though it admits there is no compelling evidence that they increase the risk of breast cancer. Yet it ignores the dozens of studies that show an elevated risk from abortion.
The Canadian Cancer Society, which denies any link between abortion and breast cancer, ignores its own precautionary principle which states: “When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” Byfield said that two lawsuits in the U.S. have resulted in awards to women who were not warned of the risks before they had abortions.
“If women’s health and informed consent aren’t enough to motivate the medical establishment, maybe the threat of liability is,” she said.
“There are over 105,000 Canadian women who have abortions each year,” she said. “Don’t they have a right to know what they are choosing?”