American Cancer Society Defends Planned Parenthood Anti-Smoking Grant 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 13, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — After LifeNews.com published a national news story on a grant from the American Cancer Society to an Iowa Planned Parenthood, thousands of pro-life advocates contacted the anti-smoking giant to complain. The organization has issued a form response that it has emailed those who sent in their concerns.
Although the ACS and the nation’s largest abortion business appear to have little in common, the group awarded the pro-abortion group’s Iowa affiliate a large grant last month to tell its customers they should stop smoking.
As Planned Parenthood tried to modify its image as an abortion business, it’s using grants like the $5,000 to its Iowa chapter to reshape its profile.
The form email answer from ACS tells pro-life advocates that the staff person who received the email has forwarded their complaint to "the appropriate staff person for consideration."
The group does not apologize for funding the abortion business but defends the practice saying Planned Parenthood helps it reach more people.
"Planned Parenthood and many other special interest organizations have broad constituent bases and solid networks that help us reach key audiences with potentially lifesaving cancer information," the ACS email says.
"As an inclusive organization, we reach out to a variety of diverse communities and organizations to help us fulfill the public awareness aspect of our mission," the response adds.
Moreover, the American Cancer Society erroneously tells those who complain about the grant that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer.
"According to the Society’s publication, ‘Can Having an Abortion Cause or Contribute to Breast Cancer,’ the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between induced abortion and breast cancer at the present time," the ACS staffer says.
However, Dr. Joel Brind, a professor at New York’s Baruch College, points to the fact that breast cancer cases have risen 40 percent since abortion was made virtually unlimited in the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.
In 1996, Brind and other researchers conducted a synthesis of all the major studies done in the field to that time.
They concluded that women who had an abortion before their first term child had a 50% increased risk of developing breast cancer while women who had an abortion after their first child sustained a 30% increased risk.
In 2000, the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in England wrote that "the Brind paper had no major methodological shortcomings and could not be disregarded."
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 Institute, some 16 of those studies are statistically significant.
In total, eight medical groups recognize an independent link between abortion and cancer, including the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which says the abortion-breast cancer link is "highly plausible."
The ACS grant to Planned Parenthood isn’t the first one.
In 2005, the Iowa Planned Parenthood received a $23,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation and was also funded last year by the American Cancer Society to the tune of $3,000.
And Iowa isn’t the first place where the pro-abortion group has tried to use anti-smoking campaigns to grow its constituency.
In 2006 Planned Parenthood of Pasadena began a program called SmokeBusters that is, “aimed at children in grades 1 – 5, effectively an anti-smoking program that helps children understand about making healthy choices.”
ACTION: Urge the American Cancer Society to stop funding Planned Parenthood. To contact the ACS call 1-800-227-2345; write to: American Cancer Society, 1599 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329; or use its contact page at: https://www.cancer.org/asp/contactUs/cus_global.asp.
