Abortion increases Cancer risk

Reprinted from The Standard 4/6/93 Women who have had abortions have a greater risk of developing breast cancer, The Washington Times reported Friday, and because of the increase in breast cancer risk, women are 200 times more likely to die from aborting their first pregnancy than from carrying the fetus to term.
Delaying childbirth until later in life also increases one's risk, studies show.

Dr. Joel Brind, an endocrinologist and biologist now doing cancer research, was in Washington to bring his findings on breast cancer to the attention of the Congress. He met with both Senate and House staff members during his two-day visit, which was sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Life, a Washington-based pro-life group.

He has cited 19 other sources [see below], including a 1986 Lancet article which states that "induced abortion before first-term pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer."

"A woman who has a baby as a teenager has about a 7% lifetime risk of getting breast cancer, " he said, "but a woman who aborts her first pregnancy has about double that risk -- 15% or more."

"I've been trying to get this in the paper" for a long time, said Dr. Brind, professor of biology and endocrinology at Baruch College of the City University of New York.

Dr. Brind has been studying the abortion-breast cancer link since 1982. He is a Yale graduate with degrees in biology, chemistry and endocrinology from New York University.

"There is a clear relationship documented in medical journals showing that women aborting their first pregnancy are at a much higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who carry their pregnancy to term," he told an audience of "Beverly LaHaye Live" Monday afternoon.

Scientific studies have demonstrated these facts for the last 12 years, but the liberal media have been unwilling to publish the findings, he said. According to the Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Life, only The Washington Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Chicago Sun-Times have run the story.

"This has been known for years now," Dr. Brind said, "But the abortion industry," along with the media, has squelched the facts.

Dr. Brind cited a number of unbiased studies, including:

a 1981 Los Angeles study which found a 2.4-fold higher incidence of breast cancer among women younger than 33 who had had an abortion before a live birth;

a New York study by Dr. Holly Howe that included all upstate and Long Island, New York women between 1976 and 1980 who developed breast cancer before age 40. The study showed a 90% increase among women who aborted their first pregnancy. All 10 women who had had two consecutive abortions developed breast cancer.

a Russian 1978 study published by Larissa Remennick in 1990, indicating that women who had aborted one or two pregnancies had a 200% chance of developing breast cancer. Those with three or more tripled their risk, her study found. Numerous other studies in Denmark, Japan, Canada, Israel, France, and the US found the same link.
[D.S. Dew, 1993] 

Journal articles demonstrating abortion-breast cancer link:

MacMahon B, Cole P, Lin TM, Lowe CR, Mirra AP, Ravnihar B, Salbor EJ, Valaoras VG, Yunsa S (1970) Bulletin of the World Health Organization 43:209-21

Pike MC, Henderson BE, Casagrande JT, Rosario I, Gray GE (1981) British Journal of Cancer 43:72-6

Yuan J-M, Yu MC, Ross RK, Gao Y-T, Henderson BE (1988) Cancer Research 48:1949-53

Brinton LA, Hoover R, Fraumeni JF, Jr (1983) British Journal of Cancer 47:756-62

Rosenberg L, Palmer JR, Kaufman DW, Strom BL, Schottenfeld D, Shapiro S (1988) American Journal of Epidemiology 127:981-9

Howe HL, Schie RT, Baduch H, Herzfeld P (1989) International Journal of Epidemiology 18:300-4

Hirohata T, Shigematsu T, Nomura AMY, Horie A, Hirohata I (1985) National Cancer Institute Monographs 69:187-90

Ewertz M, Duffy SW (1988) British Journal of Cancer 58:99-104

Parazzini F, La Vecchia C, Negri E (1991) International Journal of Cancer 48:816--20

Remennick LI (1989) International Journal of Epidemiology 18:498-510

Stadel BV, Rubin CL, Wingo PA, Schlesselman JJ (1986) Lancet i:436

Soini I (1977) International Journal of Epidemiology 6:365-73

Hadjimichael OC, Boyle CA, Meigs JW (1986) British Journal of Cancer 53:281-4

Russo J, Russo I, II (1980) American Journal of Pathology 100:497-512

Olsson H, Ranstam J, Baldetorp B, Ewers S-B, Ferno M, Killander D, Sigurdsson (1991) Cancer 67:1285-90