Komen for the Cure Joins Idaho Abortion Business for Breast Cancer Screenings
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 9, 2009
Boise, ID (LifeNews.com) — The Komen for the Cure organization that sponsors events to combat breast cancer has teamed up with a business that does abortions, which have been proven to increase a woman’s risk for contracting the disease. The move in Idaho is the latest in the link between Komen and Planned Parenthood.
On Friday, Komen teamed up with Planned Parenthood of Idaho to offer breast cancer screenings in Twin Falls and information about breast cancer.
About a dozen women scheduled screenings, according to the Magic Valley Times-News and they were done at the abortion business.
"The main goal is to provide clinical breast exams and mammography to women for free," Suzanne Edelman of Planned Parenthood told the newspaper.
Komen essentially paid Planned Parenthood for the breast cancer exams that, without its financial input, would have cost women $70.
Although there are nothing wrong with breast cancer screenings, pro-life advocates are disappointed a group that is concerned about breast cancer would team up with an abortion business, especially since research shows abortions increase the risk.
In 2007 alone, Komen chapters gave $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates.
The amount of the grants from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood appears to be on the rise and 25 Komen affiliates now have a partnership with the abortion business.
A new video released in February, "Komen’s Dark Side," exposes the irregular relationship between the breast cancer organization and Planned Parenthood. The video reports on the cover-up of the abortion-breast cancer link.
"Komen’s officials have no right to keep women in the dark about a breast cancer risk, while at the same time giving funds to Planned Parenthood, a primary cause of the breast cancer epidemic," says Karen Malec, the head of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.
"The cancer fundraising industry is covering up the link, in part, because it is not good for fundraising to tell donors their abortions may be responsible for their breast cancers," Malec added.
Baruch College professor and renowned researcher Joel Brind, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on the link between abortion and breast cancer, says that the link between the two is real and that studies back up his assertion that carrying a pregnancy to term reduces the risk.
"That’s what the big research argument is about: does abortion increase the risk of breast cancer beyond not getting pregnant in the first place? And the answer is yes," Brind says.
Brind explains that the reason for the link is "obvious" in that "once a woman gets pregnant, her breasts start growing within days or a week or so after getting pregnant. So the number of those Type 1 and Type 2 lobules where breast cancer can form are multiplying and so there are more places where cancer can start as the pregnancy proceeds."
"Well, once 32 weeks pass, all those Type 1 and Type 2 lobules become Type 3 and Type 4 lobules so you actually have fewer places for cancer to form than before the pregnancy started. But if a pregnancy is aborted before the 32-week mark, the risk for breast cancer goes way up from where it would have been even if a woman hadn’t gotten pregnant in the first place," he said.
While much of the focus of the debate is on the abortion side of the breast cancer issue, Brind says there is little controversy about the fact that pregnancy helps women.
"No one argues with the fact that when a woman has a full-term pregnancy, breast cancer risk goes down," he said.
For more information on the abortion-breast cancer link, visit the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute’s web site at https://www.BCPInstitute.org
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