Articles

by Joel Brind, Ph.D.

On March 6 of this year, our own US National Cancer Institute (NCI), on its "Cancer Facts" web page on "Abortion and Breast Cancer", has stooped to a new low of disinformation. A stunning mix of distortions, misrepresentations, material omissions and outright lies, this so-called 'fact sheet' was perpetrated by the NCI to convince the nation and the world, contrary to the findings of over four decades of published medical research, that there is no abortion-breast cancer link.

The first distortion, which is repeated over and over again throughout the piece, is the confusion of the terms "induced abortion" and "spontaneous abortion". In an article of just over 500 words, the phrase "induced or spontaneous abortions" or "spontaneous or induced abortions" appears no less than five times; the term "induced abortion" three times, and the unmodified term "abortion" appears nine times.

Please Note: RFM News has graciously agreed to allow the coalition to publish this Special Report on its website.

RFM NEWS SPECIAL REPORT

Chicago, Illinois
Dan [at] rfmnews.com
www.RFMNEWS.com
February 25, 2002

Possible link between abortion & breast cancer summarily dismissed by abortion supporters and media / Critics say Women's E News jumps on disinformation bandwagon

According to critics, the legal and journalistic arms of the abortion industry jumped on the disinformation bandwagon with the publication of a February 17, 2002, article in Women's E News authored by Margaret Woodbury entitled, "Judge to rule on abortion, breast cancer link."  Funded by the NOW Legal Defense Fund and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, the Internet wire service reported, "Many researchers are troubled ... because the weight of current scientific evidence does not seem to support a link between breast cancer and abortion."

by Karen Malec,
President of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Published in Illinois Leader, September 20, 2002 

Two or three decades ago, it might have been difficult to imagine a situation in which radical feminist legislators would fight bitterly to oppose a women’s health care issue. After all, the American public has been constantly reminded for the last 30 years that such politicians are the champions of women’s health care. Breast cancer and legalized abortion are issues which belonged to them alone, and any male legislator who didn’t go along with the program was represented as an individual lacking in compassion and as a violator of women’s rights. These are the mantras that have been repeated to us: abortion is “health care”; women are autonomous decision makers; radical feminists care about women’s health; abortion is a woman’s choice; and abortion is safe. 

Medical Elite Privately Say Abortion Causes Breast Cancer, but It’s ‘Too Political’ to Discuss Publicly 

In a lawsuit filed against Planned Parenthood Federation of American in California Superior Court for falsely advertising the alleged safety of abortion, Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., a New Jersey breast surgeon, declared under oath that members of the nation’s medical elite are aware that abortion causes breast cancer. However, they refuse to say so publicly because it is ‘too political.’ She said to the court:

"In September 1999 I wrote a letter to the president and each of the board members of my medical society, the American Society of Breast Surgeons. My letter … said that doctors… need to get this information (about abortion and breast cancer) to the public, and asked that an expert be invited to address the Society on this issue. Some time later I called the president, Dr. Rachel Simmons, and she told me, apologetically, that she presented it to the board but they felt it was 'too political.'

TESTIMONY OF KAREN MALEC
President, Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
www.AbortionBreastCancer.com
March 12, 2007

My name is Karen Malec.  I have been president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer for more than seven years.  I am a cancer advocate and a 17-year survivor of colon cancer.  I want to bring to your attention two risks of abortion - breast cancer and premature birth.  I mention premature birth because this more than doubles a mother's breast cancer risk if it occurs before 32 weeks of pregnancy.  These findings also provide support for an abortion-breast cancer link since an abortion is essentially a premature birth.

STOP THE COVER-UP!

Start telling women the truth about the ABORTION BREAST CANCER LINK!

Do something to stop the ABC cover-up....

Call the following cancer research fundraising businesses and protest;

STOP THE COVERUP!
Start telling women the truth about the
ABORTION BREAST CANCER LINK!

Cancer Research fundraising "businesses"…

Algo sobre lo que cada mujer tiene derecho a estar informada

El aborto eleva el riesgo del cancer de mama

http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/aborto/cancer.html

http://escuela.med.puc.cl/publ/ArsMedica/ArsMedica6/Art09.html

www.nomassilencio.com 

www.cintalatina.org

http://www.cintalatina.org/discursos/sanchez070421.pdf

El Aborto y el Cancer de Mama: Vinculo que no Desaparece

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/LanfranchiSP.pdf

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/LanfranchipamphletSP.pdf

The first kind of bias is called recall bias or reporting bias. It pertains to the bias that a patient allegedly has when answering the following question, "Did you ever have an induced abortion?" Some scientists have theorized that breast cancer patients are more likely to honestly report any abortions that they might have had than healthy women are (i.e. a bias between breast cancer patients and healthy women). This theory has been offered as an explanation for the studies linking abortion with breast cancer. If this phenomenon exists, then the findings in those studies reporting an increased risk of breast cancer among women having an abortion history -- as opposed to a decreased risk among women without an abortion history -- would not be authentic. 

If this hypothesis is true, then any epidemiological study relying on retrospective data, as opposed to prospective data could be faulty. Retrospective data are obtained through interviews and/or questionnaires by looking back at women's reproductive history. On the other hand, prospective data are obtained through the use of medical records recorded when an abortion takes place.

A 1980 study on rats showed that 77.7% of aborted rats developed breast cancer after being exposed to the carcinogen, DMBA. On the other hand, 66.7% of virgin rats and 0% of rats with full term pregnancies developed breast cancer after being exposed to the same carcinogen. The authors of the study concluded, "Therefore, while pregnancy and lactation (breastfeeding) protected the mammary gland (breast) from developing carcinomas (cancers) and benign lesions by induction of full differentiation (by inducing a maturing process), pregnancy interruption (abortion) did not elicit sufficient differentiation (maturity) in the gland to be protective." 1

Postage Stamps

Cancer Treatment is More Profitable than Cancer Prevention

The United States Post Office is selling 37 cent stamps for 45 cents in order to raise funds for breast cancer research. Dr. Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, says that he won't buy these stamps sold by the U.S. Postal Service. Here is his explanation:

"The profits go to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), our own federal agency charged with leading the 'war on cancer'. It's the same NCI--regrettably--that has spearheaded the cover-up of the most avoidable risk factor for breast cancer: abortion. Shame on them."

Induced abortion and breast cancer risk

By Joel Brind, Ph.D., 

Breast cancer and abortion

By Patrick Carroll

The article Breast cancer and abortion:collaborative reanalysis of data from 53 epidemiological studies... (The Lancet Vol 363) has its credibility impaired by the failure throughout the world to fully record induced abortions.

Bias in the Abortion-Breast Cancer Debate

By Chris Kahlenborn, MD

SUMMARIES OF LETTERS TO MEDICAL JOURNALS

Chris Kahlenborn's Letter to the Lancet Regarding Beral et al. 2004

In his letter, Kahlenborn criticized a review of the research by Oxford scientists. 1  He said the Oxford team "failed to accurately portray the world's literature."

If You Have Had An Abortion . . .

If you have had an abortion, then be sure to inform your physician of your reproductive history and obtain his or her advice about early detection of breast cancer. Because of the active involvement of the National Cancer Institute and other anti-cancer organizations to cover up the abortion-breast cancer link, your physician might be unaware of the existing studies dating back to 1957 which have implicated abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. We strongly recommend that you take the information from our web site and from Dr. Brind's web site (www.BCPInstitute.org) and show it to your physician.

If you have had an abortion, it is important for you to adopt strategies that will help you to reduce your risk for developing breast cancer later in life.

IF YOU ARE SINGLE:

Be abstinent until marriage.  Adopt the dietary and lifestyle strategies shown in the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute's booklet, "Breast Cancer Risks and Prevention." You can find these strategies listed in the last chapter of the booklet here:

The cancer establishment recognizes these reproductive risk factors for breast cancer: little or no childbearing, delaying a first full term pregnancy, and little or no breastfeeding. Abortion contributes to all of these risk factors. Therefore, abortion contributes to the skyrocketing breast cancer rates in the U.S.

Because childbearing decreases breast cancer risk, scientists agree that the woman who has an abortion has a greater breast cancer risk than the woman who has a baby (assuming that she gives birth after 32 weeks gestation).

Epidemiology determines whether or not a statistical relationship between abortion and breast cancer exists. In other words, do more women who have abortions develop breast cancer than other women do?

Seventy epidemiological studies have been conducted since 1957. Eighty percent of the studies report risk increases for women who have abortions.

Epidemiology isn't the only kind of research that scientists use to determine a cause-effect relationship because this type of research has limitations.  

Rev. Hon. Fred Nile ED., L.Th., M.L.C.

Parliamentary Leader, Christian Democratic Party
Parliament House, Macquarie Street, SYDNEY NSW 2000

Telephone: (02) 9230 2478 | Facsimile: (02) 9230 2098  
Email: f.nile [at] parliament.nsw.gov.au

Media Release

Breast Cancer and Abortion

Tuesday, 22nd September 2010

The Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has raised concern that new scientific research linking abortion and breast cancer is being ignored in Australia for ideological reasons.

"Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer that Australian women suffer, with approximately 14,000 new diagnoses every year. It is a horrific condition that can rob women of their sense of femininity, dignity and ultimately life", said Rev Fred Nile.

13 Recent Epidemiologic Studies on the Abortion-Breast Cancer Link Conducted on the Indian Subcontinent

Dear Doctor:

We're writing to urge you to review the abundance of biological evidence linking induced abortion with increased breast cancer risk, so that you can consider what legal obligations you might have to properly inform your patients.

General counsel for a medical organization informed doctors in 2005 that women from Pennsylvania, Oregon and Australia have successfully sued their abortion providers for neglecting to warn them about the increased risks of breast cancer and emotional harm. 1

Increase in Reverse Gradient across Social Class for Female Breast Cancer in England and Wales

Unlike other cancers, where the lower social classes have the higher incidence and the higher mortality, female breast cancer has a reverse gradient. 

Reproductive History &

Breast Cancer Risk

During a normal pregnancy, estrogen levels rise 2000% by the end of the 1^st trimester. During the first 2 trimesters, the breast grows because there is an increase in the number of immature type 1 and 2 lobules. During the 3^rd trimester, the breast stops growing but lobules mature into Type 3 & 4 lobules. During the growth phase of pregnancy, the breasts become sore and tender.

Sometimes, a woman will miscarry during the first trimester. These miscarriages (spontaneous abortions) do not increase breast cancer risk, since they are associated with low estrogen levels that do not cause breast growth. Many times women who miscarry will say they never felt pregnant because their breasts did not change and they did not get nauseous from high estrogen levels. However, miscarriages in the 2^nd trimester can increase risk.

Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Abortion/Breast Cancer Logo    
COALITION ON ABORTION/BREAST CANCER
An International Women's Organization
AbortionBreastCancer.com
response [at] abortionbreastcancer.com

ILLINOIS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR CORINNE WOOD APPEARED BEFORE THE SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE IN OPPOSITION TO SENATE RESOLUTION 8 (SR 8), A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A TASK FORCE TO INVESTIGATE THE ABORTION-BREAST CANCER LINK, ON MAY 23, 2001. WE ARE PROVIDING HER PRESS RELEASE AND ACCOMPANYING TESTIMONY.   CORINNE WOOD IS A BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR, A SPOKESPERSON FOR BREAST CANCER AND CHAIR OF WOMEN'S HEALTH ILLINOIS.  SHE DESCRIBES HERSELF AS PRO-CHOICE.

SR 8 PASSED THE COMMITTEE BY A VOTE OF 7 TO 4.  HOWEVER, ON TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2001 THE MEASURE FAILED TO PASS THE ILLINOIS SENATE BY ONLY THREE VOTES BECAUSE NOT ALL OF THE SENATORS WERE ON THE FLOOR AT THE TIME THAT THE VOTE WAS CALLED.

Preceding Dr. Lynn Rosenberg's testimony is a note from Dr. Brind with regards to its content. Following this content is a commentary from The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

The state of Florida is in court defending its new law against a lawsuit by a group of abortion clinics represented by the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. The expert

HOW NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE SCIENTISTS BETRAYED WOMEN

Abortion and Breast Cancer: The Scientific Debate That Never Happened

Scientists attending the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) workshop in late February entitled, "Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Workshop," were charged with the responsibility of conducting a comprehensive review of the research associating induced abortion with increased risk of breast cancer and debating its merits. Although some of the attendees’ own research found significant risk elevations, these scientists disavowed their earlier research and, with a sweep of their hands, announced that an "induced abortion is not associated with increased breast cancer risk." This supposed finding was classified as level 1, meaning "well-established." This contradicts the overwhelming biological and epidemiological evidence supporting a positive relationship.

The United States Post Office is selling 33 cent stamps for 40 cents in order to raise funds for breast cancer research. Dr. Joel Brind says that he won't buy these stamps sold by the U.S. Postal Service. Here is his explanation:

"The profits go to the National Cancer Institute, our own federal agency charged with leading the 'war on cancer'. It's the same NCI--regrettably--that has spearheaded the cover-up of the most avoidable risk factor for breast cancer: abortion. Shame on them."

Joel Brind, Ph.D., President,
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute

"It is known that having a full-term pregnancy early in a woman's childbearing years is protective against breast cancer....Interruption during the first trimester of a first pregnancy causes a cessation of cell differentiation, which may result in a subsequent increase in the risk of cancerous growth in these tissues." [Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. Web site, "Abortion and Breast Cancer: The Issues" 3 (visited Sep. 5, 1997) http://www.igc.apc.org/ppfa/ab-breas.html]

"They don't care what science says. It's like talking to the Flat Earth Society." [Claudia Stravato, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle, discussing a bill with a Los Angeles Times reporter which was passed by the Texas legislature requiring doctors to inform women procuring an abortion of an increased risk of breast cancer, May 22, 2003]

The National Cancer Institute revised its web site containing information on the abortion-breast cancer link late in 1999 due to pressure from Congress. Congressman Tom Bliley sent a letter on January 12, 1999 to Richard D. Klausner, Director, Department of Health & Human Services and posed 15 questions about cancer research, some of which concerned the abortion-breast cancer research. 

A list of medical organizations recognizing a link between abortion and breast cancer is provided below. Telling women their abortions are related to increased breast cancer risk is clearly not good for the fundraising business. These organizations are not motivated by profit. Their members do not perform abortions.

National Physicians Center for Family Resources
P.O. Box 59692
Birmingham, AL 35259
205/870-0234 www.physicianscenter.org

Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer: A Minority Report

March 10, 2003

Introduction:

As an invited participant in the recently concluded NCI workshop "Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer," held Feb. 24-26, I file these public comments in the form of a minority report, inasmuch as I am in partial disagreement with the findings of the workshop submitted to the Board of Scientific Advisors and the Board of Scientific Counselors, and subsequently with the unanimous approval of these Boards, to the NCI Director, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

Breast Maturity & Breast Cancer Risk

Another aspect of breast development affecting breast cancer risk is the maturation of cells, which make up the milk glands (lobules), from type 1 lobules to type 4 lobules. Breasts are composed of milk glands (lobules), which make milk, and are surrounded by supportive tissue made of fat and connective tissue.

At birth, you have primitive type 1 lobules, which are very immature and which have many TDLUs (terminal ductal lobular units), where cancers are known to arise. These type 1 breast lobules develop into type 2 lobules at puberty, which are still primitive and susceptible to carcinogens. During the 3rd trimester of pregnancy (after 32 weeks), the breast lobules mature into type 3 lobules. Type 4 are formed after childbirth and produce milk. Both type 3 and type 4 lobules are resistant to carcinogens. (See diagram)

The Honorable Jane Henney, M.D.
Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
Room 14-71 (HF-1)
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857

Dear Dr. Henney:

On October 27, 2000, the FDA provided documents in partial response to my letter of October 18th concerning the manufacturer of mifepristone and requesting certain documents. On October 30, 2000, the FDA provided a briefing to the Committee staff to respond further to the October 18th letter and Committee concerns regarding counterfeit bulk drug imports. 

THE TUSKEGEE SCANDAL: AN ANALOGY

"AMERICA’S NUREMBERG"

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a tragic episode in the history of the U.S. government’s top health agency, the U.S. Public Health Service. The scandalous study is reminiscent of the gruesome practices of the notorious Joseph Mengele, the Nazi physician who conducted monstrous experiments on Jews imprisoned in concentration camps. The scandal demonstrates that U.S. government funded scientists aren’t incapable of performing similar atrocities.

Informed Consent: Women's Right to Know About the Breast Cancer & Abortion Link

Click here to read article from the Abortion-Breast Cancer Quarterly by Joel Brind, Ph.D. discussing Congressman Weldon’s letter.

Dear Colleague:

Earlier this summer, when the House debated whether to support FDA approval of the abortion drug RU-486, a debate was stirred over the question of whether abortion increased women's risk of developing breast cancer.

WHAT IS RECALL BIAS?

The first kind of bias is called recall bias or reporting bias. It pertains to the bias that a patient allegedly has when answering the following question, “Did you ever have an induced abortion?” Some scientists have theorized that breast cancer patients are more likely to honestly report any abortions that they might have had than healthy women are (i.e. a bias between breast cancer patients and healthy women). This theory has been offered as an explanation for the studies linking abortion with breast cancer. If this phenomenon exists, then the findings in those studies reporting an increased risk of breast cancer among women having an abortion history -- as opposed to a decreased risk among women without an abortion history -- would not be authentic. 

If this hypothesis is true, then any epidemiological study relying on retrospective data, as opposed to prospective data could be faulty.  Retrospective data are obtained through interviews and/or questionnaires by looking back at women’s reproductive history. On the other hand, prospective data are obtained through the use of medical records recorded when an abortion takes place. 

Update: The manufacturer of the abortion pill, RU 486, acknowledged to the Italian government in July 2009 that it was aware of 29 deaths associated with the use of its product. In 2006, Senator Jim DeMint said eight U.S. women had died after using RU 486. There were nine life-threatening situations, 120 blood transfusions and over 200 hospitalizations.