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RISK
The Tragic Truth About Breast Cancer and Abortion
By Gailon Totheroh
CBN News Health & Science Reporter
May 1, 2002
CBN News uncovers the politically unpopular facts about the link between breast cancer and abortion.
CBN.com - NEW YORK CITY — Breast cancer is the leading cancer killer among women. That is why widespread media campaigns encourage women to get regular breast exams. But the media is largely silent about one of breast cancer's deadliest secrets.
Many scientists are now speaking out about the hidden truth: women who have abortions are at much greater risk.
In the 1950’s, Japanese researchers first found that abortion caused an increased risk of breast cancer. In the early 1990’s, a physician suggested to
breast surgeon Angela Lanfranchi that there was a link. So, she began asking her patients if they had had abortions.
"And in that first year, I had two 30-year-old women with very bad breast cancer, very aggressive, who — one of which had seven pregnancies and six
abortions, the other woman had five pregnancies and three abortions. So after I surveyed my own patients, asking all of them and looking at the data in my own practice, I thought, ‘This is
true,’" Lanfranchi said.
But she wanted more extensive scientific confirmation. In 1996, she got it from biology professor Dr. Joel Brind of Baruch College in New York City. He carefully
analyzed the relevant research and found a clear connection.
"This was being assiduously hidden and covered up, because there was far more evidence than was usually needed to trigger the massive media feeding frenzies
about the latest cancer scare," Brind said.
Lanfranchi has a personal vendetta against breast cancer. She lost her mother to the ravages of this disease.
Brind lost a relative as well. "A young girl who died at the ripe old age of 26, having had three abortions as a teenager," Brind explained. "You
don't get breast cancer at the age of 26."
Lanfranchi says, 30 years ago her medical school professors taught that breast cancer was a grandmother's disease only found in postmenopausal women. She says
today it is not uncommon to see women in their thirties afflicted.
With a life-and-death issue at stake, Lanfranchi and Brind started the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and sponsored a public service announcement. In the TV
Ad, a high school volleyball coach tells her players, "Nobody told me that 40 years of research and 28 medical studies have shown a significant link between abortion and breast cancer. I didn't
know abortion could increase my risk of breast cancer by 50 percent or more."
But according to the federal government's National Cancer Institute, there is no link. Posted on its website in early March, the NCI says women who have had an
abortion have the same risk of breast cancer as any other women. The National Cancer Institute declined our request for an interview.
But Dr. Brind has advice for the head of the NCI. "Please, take this down, look at it, see that there are lies on it, outright lies, the whole thing is
misleading, and turn it around and put the truth up there. That's what your job is," he said.
The NCI relies heavily on a large Danish study which said there was no connection. Brind explained, "And they cite a bunch of studies which are set up and
manipulated to show that there is no risk, ignoring the larger body of evidence which clearly shows there is an increased risk from abortion."
There is a clear biological connection between abortion and breast cancer. Here’s how it happens:
- The hormone estrogen causes milk-producing tissue in the breast to grow.
- If this tissue is immature when exposed to large amounts of estrogen, it more readily turns cancerous.
- In a pregnancy, there is lots of estrogen, but a full-term pregnancy causes the tissue to mature and resist cancer.
- An abortion stops the process of maturing the milk-producing cells, leaving them vulnerable.
- That combines with growth-promoting estrogen — especially from the high levels of pregnancy before the abortion — to promote abnormal cell growth
and cancer.
- For instance, the female body tends to have larger numbers of immature breast cells before age 18 and after age 30. "And this fits in with breast cancer
risk because we know that women who have abortions before 18 and after age 30 also have the highest risk of breast cancer," Lanfranchi said.
Even the NCI's web page refers to excess exposure to estrogen as a likely factor in breast cancer.
Brind estimates the current number of new cases of breast cancer from abortion at about 10,000 per year and predicts a peak around 50,000 yearly as the enduring
impact of abortion produces more and more cancer.
"Abortion [as a factor] will become a more sizeable portion of breast cancer [cases], 20 to 25 percent somewhere in that order, yes," Brind said.
Lanfranchi said, "Just letting women know that they are at increased risk will help them to avoid the risk factors such as birth control pills or having
another abortion, and also keep them getting screened so that if they do develop a breast cancer that they can find it early before it has already spread."
Lanfranchi says the word needs to reach medical practices and the mass media. That is one reason why she and Brind produced the TV ad warning of the dangers.
"Now I've got breast cancer," the high school coach says in the ad. "And I learned the abortion I had when I was 17 was a major risk factor. I
want to let other women know, because I would give anything to have known. Whether you're pregnant or had an abortion, learn the facts today."
Brind said, "With each passing day, more women are sentenced to a slow and agonizing and premature death."
In the metropolis of New York City, where abortions exceed babies born, the link between abortion and breast cancer should be a huge issue, but it is not. Here the
link is hidden, just like it is across the country, and until the public knows what is going on and responds, the adverse health consequences will continue.
Reporter’s Notes: Because miscarriages are sometimes called spontaneous abortions, women who have miscarried may worry that they have an increased risk of
breast cancer. In reality, most miscarriages result from low estrogen, which does not increase breast cancer risk.
There are several lawsuits pending against abortion providers for not informing their clients about the risk of breast cancer. Recently in Australia, two
abortion clinics have made monetary settlements with former patients for damages as a result of not telling the whole truth about abortion and breast cancer.
For more information on this subject:
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute
P.O. Box 3127 Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
USA Toll Free 1-86-NO-CANCER
http://www.abortioncancer.com/
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
P.O. Box 152 Palos Heights, IL 60463
Toll Free 1-877-803-0102
Local Calls 1-630-226-9336
http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/
VirtueMedia (producers of public service announcement)
2131 E. New Bedford Drive Gilbert, Arizona 85234-4947
Toll Free: 1-877-7Virtue
Local Calls 1-480-545-0911
http://www.virtuemedia.org/
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