News Items

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.” 1

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.