As long ago as 1957, research studies reported a link between abortion and breast cancer. Why aren’t women being told? Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, surgeon and co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, states: “The political climate surrounding abortion is surely to blame.”

In 1996, a meta-analysis of 23 studies, which included specific data on induced abortion and breast cancer incidence, by Dr. Joel Brind, an endocrinologist at Baruch College in New York, was published in the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The cover-up began!

In 1999, Dr. Dave Weldon, a physician and member of Congress wrote a “Dear Colleague” letter to other members of Congress in which he warned that, because of the approximately 1.5 million abortions performed each year, the prospect of increased breast cancer cases would be a “health care time bomb.” “While Planned Parenthood is concerned that Pro-Life politics is behind the public education effort on the abortion-breast cancer link,” he stated, “I am equally (if not more) concerned that pro-abortion politics are preventing vital information from being given to women.”

In 2002, twenty-eight members of Congress signed a letter to Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services, describing the statement on the website of the National Cancer Institute (a government agency) as “scientifically inaccurate and misleading to the public” when it stated that “The current body of scientific evidence suggests that women who have had either induced or spontaneous abortions have the same risk as other women for developing breast cancer.” In fact, 29 out of 38 scientific studies worldwide and 13 out of 15 in the U.S. show a positive association between abortion and breast cancer.

As a result of the letter, fact sheet #FS 35.3 was removed from the NCI web site. However, the NCI promptly convened a “scientific” conference to study the link. All of the invited attendees at the conference accepted the position of the NCI, with the exception of one dissenter, Dr. Brind. It is noteworthy that the NCI is the major distributor of funds for cancer research. The new fact sheet at the NCI web site claims the evidence for a connection between abortion and breast cancer is inconclusive.

Several states have past laws requiring that abortionists inform women of the increased risk for breast cancer after an abortion, Texas being the most recent one, which even identifies abortion as a cause of prematurity which is a leading cause of cerebral palsy.

In October of last year, the first ever lawsuit in the U.S. was settled against an abortionist who failed to inform a young woman of the increased risk of breast cancer after an abortion, even though the young woman does not have breast cancer. This case establishes a precedent for future cases to win on this issue.

In September of 2003, Planned Parenthood, the largest single provider of abortion in the U.S. teamed up with the American Cancer Society and The Susan G. Komen Foundation by signing a commentary published in the Post Standard of Syracuse, New York, labeling 29 peer-reviewed, epidemiologic studies reporting risk elevations for breast cancer after abortion as “misinformation.” Curiously, this commentary appeared just two days after Syracuse volunteers distributed brochures from the Illinois-based Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer at the Susan G. Komen cancer walk.

Dr. Lanfranchi reports that doctors fear repercussions to their name and career if they disclose what is already known about the ABC link. Yet, she continued, despite the silence, “not one authority in the field, to whom I have spoken directly, has claimed the data are not true, or that I am wrong about the science.”

Mary Anne Hackett