News Items

The following is a preface to the U.S. House Debates. 

If you would like to view the debate in its entirety, click here.

ABORTION/BREAST CANCER COALITION URGES GOVERNOR: SIGN MEDICAID ABORTION BAN

An Illinois-based coalition whose aim is to prevent abortion-linked breast cancer by education and advocacy called on Governor George Ryan today to approve legislation to end state-sponsored abortions in Illinois.

Both houses of the General Assembly have passed House Bill 709 to bar taxpayer funding of abortions under the state's Medicaid program. The governor has until June 18th to decide whether to sign the measure.

"Added to the usual concerns about saving tax dollars and respecting consciences of Illinois taxpayers," said Karen Malec, coordinator of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, "is our own plea for Gov. Ryan to move to protect the health of women who probably do not know that induced abortion may increase their risk of later developing breast cancer.

"The state should be protecting the health of women, not paying for surgery that is always lethal for unborn children and poses a risk to the women undergoing it," said Mrs. Malec, a resident of Schaumburg.

CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA EMBARKS ON AD CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE WOMEN ABOUT ABORTION-BREAST CANCER LINK

A coalition led by Rachelle Sauvageau, the director of the Pro-Life Office for the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, has embarked on a newspaper, billboard and parish bulletin ad campaign to educate women about the abortion-breast cancer link. The ads contain the web address and the toll free number for the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women's organization whose purpose is to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. 

This ad campaign coincides with a lawsuit against a Fargo abortion provider, the Red River Women's Clinic, which had been distributing a pamphlet to its clients containing false and misleading statements about the research concerning the abortion-breast cancer link. The plaintiff, Amy Jo Mattson, alleges false advertising and is seeking injunctive relief.

COALITION ON ABORTION/BREAST CANCER SAYS THAT WOMEN HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT ABORTION-BREAST CANCER LINK

"We encourage news reporters and editors to inform women about all risk factors related to breast cancer when covering the Avon breast cancer awareness walk on Father's Day, Sunday," said Karen Malec, coordinator of the Abortion/Breast Cancer Coalition. “We think that women have the right to know that 27 out of 33 worldwide studies have linked abortion with breast cancer. This information, which has been available since 1957, has been withheld from women for too long.”

Friday, June 16th is the start of Chicago’s participation in the Avon Breast Cancer Three Days Walk, as part of a national series of unique fundraising events taking place in the months from May to October in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Chicago. An estimated 20,000 people will walk up to 60 miles to raise money and public awareness in the fight against breast cancer.

An international women's group called the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer reports that the New England Journal of Medicine, which three years ago published the Melbye study denying the abortion-breast cancer link, has quietly acknowledged that induced abortion is a risk factor for breast cancer.

It has been forty-three years since the first study on the abortion-breast cancer link was published in 1957. This was a study published in an English language publication, GANN, and it reported a 160% elevated risk of breast cancer among Japanese women following induced abortion. (Segi et al. (1957) GANN 48 (Suppl):1-63]. Subsequently, the World Health Organization published its study in 1970 and said that the results "suggested increased risk associated with abortion -- contrary to the reduction in risk associated with full-term births." [MacMahon B, et al. Bull Wld Health Org (1970); 43-209-21]. In 1980 Russo and Russo published the results of their study involving laboratory rats which confirmed a relationship between abortion and increased risk of breast cancer. [Russo & Russo (1980) Am J. Pathol 100:497-512].

Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has decided to warn doctors and their patients about the link between induced abortion and breast cancer, according to a page-one story in Sunday's edition of the Mail on Sunday.

The news report was cited in the US in a news release from the International Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, which is based in Palos Heights, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

The British professional association plans, according to the news report, to publish the warning via leaflets and the Internet and will be joined in the campaign by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which serves an estimated 50,000 women annually.

"Exhaustive studies encompassing hundreds of thousands of women suggest that those who terminate pregnancies run a 30 per cent greater risk of breast cancers...."Examining 28 separate studies," reported the Mail on Sunday, "[researchers in the US] found that 24,500 cases of breast cancer were attributable to abortion."

The news story notes the Royal College independently assessed the findings and concluded the warning should be issued.

Please note that there are three joint sponsors of the resolution: Senators Patrick O'Malley, Doris Karpiel and Chris Lauzen.

By Karen Malec

An official list of "known human carcinogens" released by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2002 includes steroidal estrogens for the first time. The Report on Carcinogens states that steroidal estrogens are used in estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and common abortifacient drugs. Both kinds of drugs have been widely utilized by American women. The federal report is available on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences website. [1] 

While certain pharmaceuticals might provide limited medical benefits, women must balance these considerations against the fact that breast cancer is the second greatest cause of cancer among American women.

Clearly, the Report on Carcinogens presents a serious conflict for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. In February, a panel of grant-dependent scientists chosen by the NCI swept under the rug staggering biological and epidemiological evidence supporting a causal relationship between abortion and breast cancer which has been amassed over the last 46 years.

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer reported today that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has published new statements about research examining the relationship between abortion and breast cancer on a web page posted November 25, 2002. The page is entitled "Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer."

This action comes after serious accusations of scientific misconduct were leveled at the agency during a four year period by more than two dozen members of Congress and six medical experts, including Congressman Dave Weldon, M.D. and former Congressman Tom Coburn, M.D. [1]

After reviewing the NCI’s new statements, Karen Malec, president of the women’s organization, commented that:

The British and American medical establishments reacted to the publication of a study directly linking abortion with escalating breast cancer rates in Great Britain by denying that there is any proof of a link. The study which examined breast cancer rates in Britain, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic was conducted by the Populations and Pensions Research Institution, an independent group of statisticians, and found that women who procure abortions double their risks of the disease.

“Apparently, the medical establishment has decided to adopt Joe Camel’s strategy by asserting that there is no proof of a link,” said Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women’s group. “This is an impossibly high bar to set for any risk factor, especially for one called a ‘choice.’ Doctors know that absolute proof cannot be obtained without doing unethical experiments on women.” 

CHICAGO PARENT, Y-ME and NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PHYSICIAN MISINFORM WOMEN about the ABORTION-BREAST CANCER RESEARCH

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer accused Chicago Parent, the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization and Northwestern University Medical School physician Valerie Staradub, M.D. of falsely reassuring women of the safety of abortion and of minimizing the lifetime risk of breast cancer for American women. Two articles appeared in the October, 2001 issue: the first entitled, “One in eight,” by Darcy Lewis; the second entitled, “Myths and Facts about Breast Health,” by Eugenia Levenson. 

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women’s organization, announced today that the abortion-breast cancer statistics provided in a press release on October 2, 2001 by Concerned Women For America (CWA) are really far worse than what had been reported.

Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said: “We are extremely grateful to CWA for having expressed its concern to the national media about the research which has linked abortion with breast cancer over the last 44 years. However as of this date, 28 out of 37 worldwide studies published since 1957 have shown a positive association between abortion and breast cancer. Seventeen studies are statistically significant, 16 of which found increased risk. A 1996 review and meta-analysis of 23 studies determined that 18 studies found increased risk."

The review reported a 30% increased risk for the general population.” [Brind et al. (1996) J Epidemiol Community Health 50:481-96]

Mrs. Malec added that,

A women’s group today accused Redbook of misrepresenting research associating breast cancer with induced abortion and the birth control pill in an article published in its September, 2001 issue by Nancy Monson called, "Seven cancer facts you need to know now." 

Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer said, "It’s strange that Dr. Mitchell Creinin of the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Andrew Kaunitz of the University of Florida denied that abortion and oral contraceptives cause breast cancer. Medical experts agree that breast cancer risk is increased significantly each year that a first full term pregnancy (FFTP) is postponed. This glaring omission of the facts reveals their ideological bent." 

"We’re not surprised," said Mrs. Malec "that these experts would deny that the pill and abortion cause breast cancer. Kaunitz led nationwide clinical trials to bring Lunelle, a new birth control method, to the marketplace. Creinin researched the use of ultrasound to determine the effectiveness of mifepristone and misoprostol (RU-486) for abortion. Many researchers are profiting from sales of contraceptives and abortions." 

The head of an international women’s group today criticized the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) for denying overwhelming biological and epidemiological evidence implicating abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. The Evansville Courier and Press reported in a series of articles since August 16 that 11 NBCC activists met with U.S. Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) to lobby for federal funding of breast cancer research and five of the eleven were offended by his suggestion that women should be informed about research linking abortion with the disease. He was falsely accused of implying they’d had abortions, although he assured the newspaper he hadn’t. The other six activists were unnamed, but Rep. Hostettler said he received a letter of apology from one expressing her dismay that the others had behaved so badly.

“We’d like to publicly thank Rep. Hostettler for his political courage,”

said Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer announced that a lawsuit was filed yesterday in a San Diego court by three California women against Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliate, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties. The suit accuses Planned Parenthood of having mislead women about the safety of abortion. Research published over nearly a half of a century has linked the procedure with increased breast cancer risk. The incidence of breast cancer among American women has climbed 40% in the last quarter of a century since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. The incidence of all other cancers has declined in the U.S. over the same period. 

The plaintiffs, Agnes Bernardo of Chula Vista, Pamela Colip of Loma Linda, and Sandra Duffy-Hawkins of Sacramento, are not demanding monetary damages, but they are demanding Planned Parenthood to provide women with accurate information about the overwhelming evidence that abortion raises breast cancer risk. The plaintiffs are represented by the Thomas More Law Center located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Breast Cancer Activists Skewer ABC News: Accuse ABC and New York Presbyterian Medical Center Professor of Telling Half Truths About Risk Factors

Breast cancer activists accused ABC News of bias and admonished the news organization for practicing agenda-driven journalism. This is the second time that ABC has been publicly criticized on this issue. In March 2001, ABC’s Good Morning America, had been chided by a media watchdog, Republicans for a Fair Media after Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who is not an authority on breast cancer, falsely assured women that they need not worry about increased risk of breast cancer when considering an abortion. Although 27 of 34 studies reported increased risk at that time, Snyderman only discussed one reporting a negative association.

Susan G. Komen Foundation: Putting Ideology Ahead of Women's Lives

An international women’s group denounced an anti-cancer organization, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, for having granted funds over the last few years to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, in spite of the fact that 27 out of 35 studies have demonstrated a positive association between abortion and breast cancer. In addition, scientists acknowledge that postponement of first full term pregnancy increases breast cancer risk. Refer to www.AbortionBreastCancer.com for further information.

The mission of the Susan G. Komen Foundation is to eradicate breast cancer, but chapters in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas have all donated funds to their local Planned Parenthood associations. For example, in 1997 the Colorado Springs affiliate donated $71,900 for the purpose of breast cancer screening and detection, marketing, hospitality for meetings and worker salaries.

Evidence of this foundation’s love affair with Planned Parenthood can be found at these websites:

An international women’s organization denounced National Public Radio (NPR) today for its bias against nearly a half of a century of research published in esteemed medical journals and implicating abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.

Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the organization reported her experience with the “Diane Rehm Show” which is broadcast on NPR. She said:  

“On the morning of December 14, 2000, I called the “Diane Rehm Show” in Washington, D.C. Diane Rehm was interviewing Richard North Patterson, the author of a novel entitled, Protect and Defend, which concerns a teenager considering an abortion.

An Illinois-based coalition, whose purpose is to educate women about the 27 out of 33 worldwide studies which have implicated abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer, contended that Governor George Ryan's veto of a bill banning taxpayer-funded abortions, will prove to be detrimental to the health of Illinois women.

"Governor Ryan has been informed by a physician and by this coalition that nearly three dozen studies have linked induced abortion with breast cancer" said Mrs. Karen Malec, coordinator of the coalition. He is also aware that other studies have associated abortion with premature births. His veto is a great disservice to women and their children.

Dr. Joel Brind, President of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute in Poughkeepsie, New York, has conservatively estimated that an additional 5,000 to 8,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed yearly among American women because of previous abortions and that in twenty years there will be an additional 40,000 to 50,000 cases diagnosed yearly. 

An international women’s group today severely criticized a British physician for arguing in the journal, Lancet Oncology, that women should not be informed about a risk associated with an optional surgical procedure, although medical experts universally agree that it raises a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer in at least one of two ways. [1] 

Tim Davidson, a physician associated with London’s Royal Free Hospital, argued in a December, 2001 Lancet Oncology article that women contemplating an abortion should be denied informed consent. Medical experts do not dispute that abortion causes breast cancer through postponement of first full term pregnancy. While conceding that pregnancy, early first full term pregnancy and larger families confer increased protection against the disease and that childlessness and late age at first birth increase risk, Dr. Davidson nevertheless opined that women should be kept in the dark about the increased risk. 

Two possible Illinois gubernatorial contenders in the Republican party contested one another yesterday during the hearing on Senate Resolution 8 which calls for a task force to investigate the abortion-breast cancer link.

The sponsor of the resolution is Senator Patrick O'Malley.  Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood, a breast cancer survivor who calls herself 'pro-choice,' opposed the measure which would allow women to make an informed choice.  However, Ms. Wood failed to win the support of her own party, and the measure passed by a vote of 7 to 4.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women appeared in opposition to this women's health issue.  Ms. Wood represented the abortion industry and its supporters well, but not pro-choice women.  She argued that the same Senators who have mandated vaccinations, called abortion "health care" on numerous occasions and passed many laws concerning abortion over the last thirty years, were not capable of making decisions on matters concerning health care.

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.

THE ABORTION-BREAST CANCER ISSUE WILL REVEAL THE TRUE COLORS OF WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS AND POLITICIANS, WHO HAVE ARDENTLY PROFESSED TO CARE ABOUT WOMEN'S HEALTH, BUT WHO AT THE SAME TIME CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE ABORTION INDUSTRY, IN SPITE OF RESEARCH SPANNING A 44 YEAR PERIOD LINKING ABORTION WITH THIS DEADLY DISEASE.

OUR COMMENTARY APPEARS IN UPPERCASE LETTERS.

Over the next few weeks many cancer walks to benefit breast cancer research and sponsored by Y-Me Breast Cancer and Avon Products, Inc. will be taking place across the nation.  Thousands of women will be participating in these walks, but most have never been informed about the most preventable cause of breast cancer -- induced abortion.  Twenty-seven out of 35 studies published since 1957 have linked abortion with breast cancer. 

Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said "Scientists have been studying this link for 44 years.  We are appalled that women haven't been informed about the existence of these studies.  Why are women being excluded from this discussion about their own health care?"  

"We intend to correct this grave injustice," asserted Mrs. Malec.  "In Chicago volunteers will distribute brochures at the cancer walks to educate the walkers about the abortion-breast cancer research," reported Mrs. Malec.  "In other cities volunteers have erected billboards advertising our web address: < www.AbortionBreastCancer.com >."

Women's Group Tells Press: Ask Anti-Cancer Groups Hard Questions

May 9th, 2002

The head of an international women’s group today encouraged members of the media to ask the anti-cancer organizations some hard questions addressing their failure to alert American women that scientists had been exploring a link between abortion and breast cancer since 1957. [1] 

Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said, “This is the time of year when anti-cancer groups are sponsoring cancer walks to raise funds for further research into the causes of breast cancer. Shouldn’t they be asked some hard questions about their decision to keep women in the dark about the abortion-breast cancer research? We suggest the following questions: 

March 28th, 2002

A spokesperson for a women’s group today expressed disappointment that a California Superior Court judge had dismissed a lawsuit filed by three women against Planned Parenthood Federation of America for having misrepresented more than four decades of research linking abortion with breast cancer. The plaintiffs, Agnes Bernardo, Pamela Colip and Saundra Duffy-Hawkins were represented by the Michigan based group, the Thomas More Center for Law and Justice. 

An international women's organization, whose purpose is to educate the public about the 27 out of 35 worldwide studies demonstrating that women who have abortions are at increased risk for breast cancer, accused MAMM magazine of misleading the public about the research today.  Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said "The link between induced abortion and breast cancer has been covered up for 44 years.  It is a crime that women have not been informed of the existence of more than two dozen studies linking abortion with breast cancer.  It is indefensible that a consumer magazine, supported by advertising revenue from pharmaceutical companies, misleads women about this life-saving knowledge.  MAMM is in a position to know better.   Cancer patients depend upon MAMM for accurate information, and they deserve better than this." 

March 20th, 2002

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women’s organization, accused the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of suppressing the truth about research exploring the abortion-breast cancer link in its recently revised fact sheet. The group’s president, Karen Malec, said: "The NCI is conducting a shameless campaign to conceal the truth about research paid for by U.S. taxpayers." 

Biological evidence and 28 out of 37 studies done in different parts of the world since 1957 associate abortion with the disease. Thirteen of 15 studies done in the U.S. have confirmed a link. Although most of these were funded by the NCI, the new fact sheet cites only two U.S. studies. [1] Our website lists the studies at < www.AbortionBreastCancer.com >. 

"This isn’t the first time that the agency has lied to women," said Malec. "Its website said in 1999 that only animal research had provided a basis for the relationship between abortion and the disease, although 26 of 32 studies conducted on women in a number of countries had reported risk elevations by then. 

March 7, 2001

An international women's organization whose objective is to prevent breast cancer caused by induced abortion urged the media to report the abortion breast cancer research objectively.

Mrs. Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said, "Dr. Joel Brind, Ph.D. has identified 27 out of 34 worldwide studies published since 1957 linking abortion with breast cancer. Thirteen of 14 U.S. studies implicate abortion as a risk factor. Seventeen are statistically significant.  Five studies show a more than twofold increased risk." 

"Our organization is pro-life for women," asserted Mrs. Malec.  "Unfortunately, when it comes to this politically incorrect information, not everyone is pro-women's health.  This information has been covered up for 44 years."

Dear Friends:

The Wanderer, a national Catholic newspaper, featured an article on April 21, 2011 about support for Planned Parenthood from the leaders of Susan G. Komen and the American Cancer Society. The story by Dexter Duggan is featured below.

Sincerely,
Karen Malec
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer

ABORTION-BREAST CANCER NEWS HEADLINES

"Not Only The Federal Government . . .
Directs Money To Planned Parenthood"

By Dexter Duggan

The Wanderer
April 21, 2011

While Democrats on Capitol Hill fight to keep shoveling hun­dreds of millions of taxpayer dol­lars every year to the nation’s larg­est abortion provider, Planned Par­enthood, two veteran pro- life ac­tivists spoke to The Wanderer about two other organizations that direct some funds they collect to the abortion giant.

Michael Hichborn, a spokes­man for the Virginia- based Ameri­can Life League ( ALL), said that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and American Cancer Society ( ACS) might be influ­enced by negative publicity about helping feather the Planned Par­enthood nest, but the problem goes deeper.

Letter to Virginia Delegate Barbara Comstock Regarding the Cancer-Causing Dangers of the Birth Control Pill 

Dear Friend:

Virginia Delegate Barbara Comstock states on her website that she led a delegation of 13 women from Virginia's House of Delegates in supporting an effort to encourage U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make birth control pills available to women over the counter to women ages 18 and older.

As our readers know, the World Health Organization lists the birth control pill with estrogen and progestin in it as a Group 1 cancer-causing substance. It's on the same page as tobacco, mustard gas, and asbestos. Although the WHO says it raises risk for cancers of the breast, liver and cervix, it also states it reduces the risk for far less common cancers of the cervix and endometrium. However, there are four times as many cases of invasive and in situ breast cancer annually in the U.S. than there are cases of cervical and endometrial cancers combined. As we have said many times in the past, it is wrong-headed to give women a carcinogen (the pill) to prevent cancer.

Scientist Says “Abortion Explains Entire Rise in Breast Cancer since mid 1980’s,” (Source: The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer) November, 2002.

Last year an annual report on the state of cancer in the U.S. from 1973 to 1998 was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI). [1] The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and the Centers for Disease Control collaborated on it. Breast cancer statistics revealed a more than 40% jump in incidence of the disease during that period.

The increase since the mid 1980’s, however, was limited to younger women (not older women) - those young enough to have had abortions when the procedure was legalized in 1973. A similar disparity between age groups exists in Marin County, California which has the highest incidence of breast cancer in the nation. [2]

September 17, 2001

A poll conducted by World Net Daily addressing the question of a cover-up of the abortion-breast cancer research reported that 87.89% respondents agreed with the statement that the link between the disease and abortion was being “soft-pedaled” for political purposes. The poll was conducted on September 11, 2001 and asked the question, “Is the link between breast cancer and abortion being soft-pedaled for political purposes?” The results of the poll are shown below.

Yes 87.89% (740)

Possibly 6.29% (53)

No 3.21% (27)

Don't know 2.38% (20)

Not sure 0.24% (2)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TOTAL VOTES: 842

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.

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is pleased to announce that on December 10, 1999 it joined hands with Endeavour Forum, located in Toorak, Victoria, Australia. Babette Francis, National and Overseas Coordinator for Endeavour Forum, met with the coalition’s leaders at a hotel near O’Hare International Airport. Babette and her husband, Charles, have been spreading the word about the abortion-breast cancer link for a number of years. Charles Francis, a personal injury attorney, won a lawsuit in 1999 against a general practitioner who referred his client for an abortion, as well as the abortion clinic, the physician who performed the abortion and the clinic counselor. His client claimed that she suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the abortion and that she had not been counseled properly before the abortion.

Dear Friends:

Australian attorney, Charles Francis, authored an article for the Winter 2003 issue of NLA Review, a publication of the National Lawyers Association. Francis is believed to have won the world’s first known abortion-breast cancer settlements. We are sharing his article with you.

Francis made two particularly important observations in his article. First, he quoted Justice Cardozo who said that:

"[e]very human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent commits an assault for which he is liable in damages."

Francis wrote that Cardozo’s words are "still respectfully quoted as correctly summarising the law on this topic." He further observed that physicians are obliged to inform their patients of all material risks associated with a particular surgical procedure, even though it might not be the "self-created custom" of physicians to do so. He explained:

A coalition led by Rachelle Sauvageau, the director of the Pro-Life Office for the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, has embarked on a newspaper, billboard and parish bulletin ad campaign to educate women about the abortion-breast cancer link. The ads contain the web address and the toll free number for the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an international women's organization whose purpose is to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. 

This ad campaign coincides with a lawsuit against a Fargo abortion provider, the Red River Women's Clinic, which had been distributing a pamphlet to its clients containing false and misleading statements about the research concerning the abortion-breast cancer link. The statement from the pamphlet says, "Anti-abortion activists claim that having an abortion increases the risk of developing breast cancer and endangers future childbearing. None of these claims are supported by medical research or established medical organizations." The plaintiff, Amy Jo Mattson, alleges false advertising and is seeking injunctive relief.

A new study done by David Reardon of the Elliott Institute and Dr. Philip Ney, a British Columbia psychiatrist, specializing in post-abortion counseling, reports that, "Women who have an abortion are five times more likely to report subsequent substance abuse compared to women who carry to term." The study, which was published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, was the latest of at least 16 studies reporting such a link. Dr. Reardon estimates that there are 150,000 to 500,000 cases of abortion-related substance abuse each year. 

Substance abuse is a leading cause of neonatal death and malformation in pregnancy. Dr. Ney says, "I have found that women with resolved grief or trauma related to a prior abortion are more likely to feel anxiety, fear,and depression during subsequent pregnancies," Ney said. "If they are unable to legally obtain mood-altering drugs with a prescription, many of these women resort to alcohol or illegal drugs as a means of suppressing unwanted feelings about their past abortions."

Ohio State Representative Calls For Abortion-Breast Cancer Task Force

Ohio State Representative Jean Schmidt announced her intentions to introduce a resolution which would create an Abortion-Breast Cancer Task Force. The measure was modeled after Illinois Senate Resolution 8 introduced by State Senator Patrick O’Malley in 2000. Its purpose would be to examine the 37 epidemiological studies published over the last 45 years which have explored a relationship between induced abortion and the disease and to study the available biological evidence supporting a causal relationship. Twenty-eight of the studies thus far have implicated abortion as a risk factor. 

Members of the task force would be charged with the duty to make recommendations to the legislature on how to create greater awareness of the abortion-breast cancer link. 

Schmidt promised to sponsor legislation requiring doctors to inform abortion bound women about the research if the task force concludes that there is a causal relationship. 

The House speaker would be required to appoint all members of the task force, except the minority member.