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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.