News Items

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.

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.