Don’t disregard abortion-breast cancer link

I would like to respond to the criticism of the information on the abortion-breast cancer link found in the Human Life Alliance insert (“Dangerous ad misinforms women about health care,” March 9). Regarding the criticism citing how the National Cancer Institute does not support the abortion-breast cancer link, one only has to remember the history concerning tobacco and lung cancer.

The first study on tobacco and lung cancer was in 1928. By the late 1940s, there were many studies supporting tobacco as a cause of lung cancer. The first study on abortion and breast cancer was in 1957. By 1996, there were 17 statistically significant studies supporting a link between abortion and breast cancer.

In 1997, the National Cancer Institute said the study conducted by Melbye, et al, was flawless and showed no link between abortion and breast cancer. And yet this very study showed a statistically significant increased risk of breast cancer after second-trimester abortions. There are more than 100,000 second-trimester abortions a year.

There was an epidemic of lung cancer in the 1940s. There is an epidemic of breast cancer now. There has been a dramatic increase in premenopausal in-situ breast cancers since 1973. The methodologies of the studies on the link between abortion and breast cancer are the same methodologies that proved the links between tobacco and lung cancer, HIV and homosexual practices, and cervical cancer and the number of sexual partners.

In 2005, the World Health Organization’s International Agency on Research of Cancer listed estrogen/progestin (used in hormone replacement and oral contraceptives) as Group 1 carcinogens, the same classification used for tobacco.

When millions of women stopped their hormone replacement therapy in 2002, the following years saw a significant drop in breast cancer rates among postmenopausal women. Imagine the reduction in cancer rate if premenopausal women stopped taking oral contraceptives. Oral contraceptives are just higher doses of the same drugs as in hormone replacement therapy, and 61 percent of American women take them at least once in their lives.

Premature delivery before 32 weeks increases breast cancer risk due the incomplete maturation and increase in number of breast cells in the mother. An induced abortion before 32 weeks increases breast cancer risk for the same reasons. The National Cancer Institute has not fulfilled its own mission statement to educate the public about cancer risks.

It’s time to get our heads out of the sand. Social justice for women demands this information be more widely available so they can make informed choices. For more information, visit www.bcpinstitute.org or www.abortionbreastcancer.com.

Lanfranchi is a breast cancer surgeon and clinical assistant professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

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