Scientific review recommends informing of abortion health risk

Scientific Review Recommends Informing Patients about Abortion-Breast Cancer Link, Risks of Birth Control Pills and Menopausal Therapy

The real war on women!

A second scientific review in 2014 has strongly urged physicians to warn patients about the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link before an abortion and argued the evidence for a cause-effect relationship is substantial. 1 2  A. Patrick Schneider and his colleagues authored the latest review entitled, “The breast cancer epidemic: 10 facts,” for the journal, The Linacre Quarterly. 1

There are multiple, serious, health risks 3 4 associated with using the birth control pill and combined hormone replacement therapy (CHRT), both of which contain estrogen and progestin, although the former contains a larger dose. The authors of both reviews urged physicians to warn patients about the harms of taking either these drugs.

Schneider’s team said, “...having more than one risk factor compounds the risk of breast cancer via synergistic mechanisms,” meaning the risk increase the woman incurs is greater than the sum of the risks for each of her risk factors. They explained:

“The strength of the breast cancer epidemiological evidence substantiates the necessity that all females receive full and accurate informed consent before they are provided hormones, induced abortion, or both. This informed consent is especially imperative for a girl (and parent/guardian) or a young woman, who is in the pre-FFTP (first full term pregnancy) breast cancer ‘susceptibility window.’ 1 2  As a family history of breast cancer, of which the child may be unaware, increases the risk for the girl considering an abortion, the presence of a parent may provide clinical information critical to accurate informed consent.”

Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, explained:

“The ‘susceptibility window’ is the period between the onset of menstruation and first full term pregnancy (FFTP) when nearly all of the breast lobules are immature and cancer-susceptible. The worst time to be exposed to a cancer-causing agent is during the susceptibility window.” 1 2 5 6 7 8 9

After citing the World Health Organization’s warning about the Pill and CHRT as Group 1 carcinogens for cancers of the breast, liver and cervix, 10 11 and how some physicians use a carcinogen (the pill) to treat benign conditions (i.e. acne, irregular menstrual periods, menstrual pain). The authors declared:

“The prescribing of a known carcinogen to a child for any non-lethal disease is problematic. Such a practice without the provision of full and accurate informed consent for the girl, and at least one parent or guardian, is medically, legally, and ethically indefensible.”

Schneider’s team cited “evidence of an emerging breast cancer pandemic.” Noting the words of Harvard’s Professor Brian MacMahon, the “founder of modern epidemiology,” who said “many of the prevalent forms of human cancer are preventable,” and citing his landmark research 12, they listed other ways women raise their risk: delay (or avoidance) childbearing, reduced duration (or avoidance) of breastfeeding.

Mrs. Malec declared, “It’s despicable that U.S. cancer groups and Planned Parenthood continue to deceive women about the ABC link and downplay the breast cancer risk associated with the Pill.”

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.

  • 1. a. b. c. d. Schneider AP, Zainer CM, Kubat CK, Mullen NK, Windisch AK. The breast cancer epidemic: 10 facts. The Linacre Quarterly 2014;81(3):244-277. Available at: http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1179/2050854914Y.0000000027.
  • 2. a. b. c. Lanfranchi A & Fagan P. Breast cancer and induced abortion: A comprehensive review of breast development and pathophysiology, the epidemiologic literature, and proposal for creation of databanks to elucidate all breast cancer risk factors. Issues in Law and Medicine 2014;29(1):1-133. Available at:

  • 3. Combined oral contraceptives (the Pill) can be delivered orally or via skin patch or vaginal ring. The following increased health risks are associated with taking the Pill:
    • Breast cancer
    • Liver cancer
    • Cervical cancer
    • Heart attacks
    • Strokes
    • Blood clots
    • Greater susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases

    Schneider’s team wrote the following about progestin-only Plan B,

    “Although it can now be purchased by a child of any age as easily as candy, Plan B One-Step is equivalent to the ingestion of 40-50 oral contraceptives (the Pill) at one time (FDA 2013). Regrettably, there is substantial evidence that progestin-only contraceptives, including levonorgestrel, are as carcinogenic as (the estrogen plus progestin birth control pill), and likely more so. (Yager and Davidson 2006) in their authoritative review state ‘progestins tend to increase cell proliferation (multiplication),’ which is a known mechanism for carcinogenesis.” (emphasis added)

    They added:

    “There is, in fact, reason to suspect that the progestins, such as levonorgestrel (Plan B), are more carcinogenic than combined hormone replacement therapy....Similarly, the World Health Organization-IARC (2007, 2876) final version of data released in 2005, although veiled, is revealing: ‘The addition of progestogens appears to enhance significantly the modest increase in the rate of breast cell proliferation caused by estrogen-only therapy. This is consistent with the notion of an increase in risk for breast cancer associated with combined estrogen-progestogen menopausal therapy, over that associated with estrogen-only menopausal therapy.” [WHO-IARC 2007, 2876; Grosse et al. 2009] (emphasis added)

  • 4. The authors listed the following risks associated with taking combined hormone replacement therapy, as reported by the Women’s Health Initiative study:
    • Invasive breast cancer
    • Increase in total cardiovascular mortality
    • Increase in “heart attacks”
    • Pulmonary emboli
    • Probable dementia for women >65 years old
    • Abnormal mammograms
    • Ovarian cancer
    • Breast cancer mortality (near doubling)
    • Stroke occurrence

  • 5. Dolle J, Daling J, White E, Brinton L, Doody D, et al. Risk factors for triple-negative breast cancer in women under the age of 45 years. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(4)1157-1166. Available at: 

  • 6. Daling JR, Malone DE, Voigt LF, White E, Weiss NS. Risk of breast cancer among young women: relationship to induced abortion. J Natl Cancer Inst 1994;86:1584-1592. Available at: http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/86/21/1584.
  • 7. Kahlenborn C, Modugno F. Potter DM, Severs WB. Oral contraceptive use as a risk factor for premenopausal breast cancer: A meta-analysis. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2006;81(10):1290-1302.
  • 8. F.M. Biro and M.S. Wolff, Chapter 2: “Puberty as a Window of Susceptibility,” in Environment and Breast Cancer, ed. J. Russo (New York: Springer, 2011), 29-36.
  • 9. Glantz S and Johnson KC. The surgeon general report on smoking and health 50 years later: Breast cancer and the cost of increasing caution. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23:37-46.
  • 10. Cogliano V, Grosse Y, Baan R, Straif K, Secretan B, El Ghissassi F. Carcinogenicity of combined oestrogen-progestagen contraceptives and menopausal treatment. Lancet Oncology 2005;6:552-553.
  • 11. Press Release No. 167, "IARC Monographs Programme Finds Combined Estrogen-Progestogen Contraceptives (the "pill") and Menopausal Therapy Are Carcinogenic to Humans," World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, July 29, 2005. See http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2005/pr167.html.
  • 12. MacMahon, B, Cole P, Lin TM, Lowe CR, Mirra AP, Ravnihar B, Salber EJ, Valaoras VG, Yuasa S. Age at First Birth and Breast Cancer Risk. Bull WHO 1970;43:209-221.

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