Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- A study by Harvard University researchers that's come under fire for denying the link between abortion and breast cancer also contained confirmation that carrying a pregnancy to term helps reduce a woman's risk. Pro-life advocates say the finding shows women should be encouraged to seek abortion alternatives.

Lost in the abortion-breast cancer link debate was the fact that the researchers affirmed previous studies showing that a full-term pregnancy before age 35 reduces the long-term risk of developing breast cancer.

They said the fact was well-established and that their own research renewed the evidence for it.

Karin Michels of Brigham and Women's Hospital, who headed the study, said that someone who has had an abortion "misses out on the potential benefit she would have had if she had a full-term pregnancy."

Responding to the finding on childbirth, Karen Malec, of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, told LifeNews.com that "Even the NCI agrees that increased childbearing, starting at an early age, protects women from breast cancer."

"Legislators have a moral obligation to require abortion providers to inform expectant mothers that if they have an abortion, their breast cancer risk will be higher than it would be if they have a baby. That's settled science," she explained.

An October study published in the International Journal of Cancer confirms previous research showing that carrying a pregnancy to term reduces a woman's risk.

"It is well established that pregnancies that end in a full-term birth ultimately confer a protective effect on breast cancer risk," Dr. Gillian K. Reeves, of the University of Oxford, wrote in the IJC research article.

Also, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found a woman's risk of contracting breast cancer is lowered and the decrease is more substantial the more pregnancies a woman has had.

Related web sites:
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer - http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com