Attorney Explains Potential Physician Legal Liability to Lawmakers

The second featured speaker at the October, 1999 legislative briefing sponsored by the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer was attorney John Kindley. Mr. Kindley authored a widely-read article, which received attention in Congress and was published in the Wisconsin Law Review entitled, “The Fit Between the Elements for an Informed Consent Cause of Action and the Scientific Evidence Linking Induced Abortion with Increased Breast Cancer Risk.” He discussed the legal liability which physicians face when they fail to inform abortion-bound patients of the increased risk of breast cancer. He explained that the information about the increased risk of breast cancer is material to a woman’s decision whether or not to procure an abortion and that there is sufficient evidence of a connection between abortion and breast cancer to impose a legal duty upon physicians to inform their patients.