Abortion-Breast Cancer Awareness Group Upset by Organization’s "Award" 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 9, 2006
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A woman’s group that promotes awareness of the link between abortion and breast cancer is upset by a dubious "award" given to it by a national organization that claims abortion doesn’t lead to breast cancer. The so-called award is the latest in the ongoing debate about whether induced abortions elevate a woman’s risk for breast cancer.
The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) has nominated the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (Coalition) for what it calls the "Golden Boob Award."
NBCC says on its award web site that the award will be given to those who it thinks undermine its efforts to help women combat or address breast cancer.
"In the fight to stop breast cancer, we’re out to find the biggest boobs of all – those whose frivolous or futile actions or initiatives actually undermine this critical mission," NBCC says on its award web site.
The NBCC has nominated the Coalition for its award along with a group that sells a breast self-examination kit that it thinks is more about making money than helping women. The groups supporters are asked to vote for one of the two for its 2006 award or submit a nominee of their own.
In its details about the nominees, NBCC pulls no punches in criticizing the Coalition.
"This group is using breast cancer as a scare tactic, pure and simple" it says about the Coalition claiming that the group "is spreading false medical information" and "misleads the public and creates needless anxiety for women who may have had abortions."
But Karen Malec, president of the Coalition, says its the NBCC that is misleading and misinforming women.
Malec told Cybercast News Service that the NBCC is withholding information from scientific studies showing that childbirth is better than abortion at helping women avoid breast cancer.
She told CNS News that the NBCC is "not telling the truth" on the abortion-breast cancer link "for a politically correct reason: to protect the very wealthy abortion industry."
There is "a great deal of pro-abortion sentiment among scientists and medical experts in general," she added.
Malec challenged the NBCC to a debate about the abortion-breast cancer link.
Malec told CNS, "we challenge [the National Breast Cancer Coalition] to a public debate on the link — our experts versus their experts."
Breast cancer surgeon Angela Lanfranchi, M.D. says those who deny the abortion-breast cancer link would likely oppose a debate on the issue because they know they would lose.
"The normal discourse in medicine when there is controversy on a scientific issue is to present arguments for both sides in texts and debate at scientific meetings," she said. "There has not been normal discourse concerning the ABC link."
Of the 41 studies which have been previously published, 29 show increased risk of breast cancer among women who have chosen abortion. According to the Breast Cancer Prevention Institution, some 16 of those studies are statistically significant.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons says the relationship is "highly plausible" and women may reconsider abortion if they are told the facts.
"The AAPS believes that patients have the right to give or withhold fully informed consent before undergoing medical treatment. This includes notification of potential adverse effects," says AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D.
In total, eight medical groups recognize an independent link between abortion and cancer.
The abortion breast cancer link prominently affects teenagers.
According to BCPI, a teenager who has an abortion between 9 and 24 weeks of pregnancy — when most are performed — has a 30% chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, compared with a 12.5% risk among all women.
If that same teenager who has an abortion also has a family history of breast cancer, the risk increases so much that one study showed all such women developed breast cancer by the age of 45.
TAKE ACTION: Send your comments about the NBCC’s "award" to the National Breast Cancer Coalition, 1101 17th Street, NW, Suite 1300, Washington, D.C. 20036, call (202) 296-7477 or send a fax to (202) 265-6854. You can also send them an email message by going here.
Related web sites:
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer – https://www.AbortionBreastCancer.com
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute – https://www.bcpinstitute.org
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons – https://www.aapsonline.org
