By LifeSiteNews.com Staff
WASHINGTON, December 1, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to a scientific review of 10 prospective studies published online today in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and others are using seriously flawed research to deny an abortion-breast cancer link. The author, Professor Joel Brind of Baruch College, concluded: “These recent studies therefore do not invalidate the large body of previously published studies that established induced abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.”
Brind is the second expert to accuse abortion enthusiasts of conducting “shoddy research.” His paper represents an update to a 1996 review and meta-analysis of the research in which 18 out of 23 studies reported risk increases for women with abortion histories.
Other research in the journal Lancet in 2004 – also used to deny the cancer link – was severely criticized by four experts (independently of one another). Even the Lancet authors (and most authors of the 10 prospective studies) concede one of two breast cancer risks (the secondary risk), despite their denials of a link.
Scientists don’t debate the secondary risk of abortion – the longer a woman delays a first birth, the greater her breast cancer risk is. But scientists debate whether abortion is independently linked to breast cancer – whether it leaves women with more cancer-susceptible breast tissue. Most recent research excludes the effect of the secondary risk because it’s already considered a “given.”
The secondary risk by itself imposes a common law obligation on doctors to inform pregnant women that their risks are greater if they abort than if they have a baby. Two U.S. teenagers successfully sued their abortionists for failing to disclose the risks of breast cancer and emotional harm.
“The NCI was wrong about the tobacco-cancer link in 1954, and it’s wrong again today. Scientists are behaving much as they did when tobacco executives corrupted cancer research,” declared Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. “They don’t care if 270,000 breast cancer cases are expected this year. Post-abortive women are losing an opportunity to adopt risk-reduction strategies. Why do these scientists hate women?”
“The abortion industry and medical establishment withholds this information in an attempt to prevent massive lawsuits from being filed,” asserted Andrew Schlafly, General Counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.