You would think that when researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania determine that something nearly TRIPLES a woman’s breast cancer risk, it would be big news.
But not if that “something” is abortion.
As LifeNews reported this week, a recent peer-reviewed study shows that abortion nearly triples a woman’s risk of breast cancer. That means 54 of 67 epidemiological studies now demonstrate a link between abortion and breast cancer.
Of course, this is not the first study that the mainstream media has ignored. Numerous other studies also demonstrate the concrete fact that abortion harms women—both physically and psychologically. For example, one peer-reviewed study led by a pro-abortion researcher demonstrated that the risk of suicide was three times greater for women who aborted than for women who carried their pregnancies to term.[1]
Similarly, another peer-reviewed study demonstrated that women whose first pregnancies ended in abortion were 65 percent more likely to score in the “high risk” range for clinical depression than women whose first pregnancies resulted in a birth—even after controlling for age, race, marital status, divorce history, education, income, and pre-pregnancy psychological state.[2]
Of course, experience has taught us not to be surprised by the mainstream media’s pro-abortion bent.
But the lack of truthful information from “trusted” news sources makes it imperative to provide full and truthful information to pregnant women. For example, we must continue passing informed consent legislation in the states. While 31 states currently maintain informed consent laws, only 3 states explicitly require a physician to inform a woman seeking abortion of the link between abortion and breast cancer
We must constantly remind the public that abortion hurts women, and that we have the studies to back up that claim. The more the general public knows about the inherent harms of abortion, the harder it will be for abortion advocates to classify abortion as “health care.”
Planned Parenthood of New York City recently posted a “how-to” on talking to relatives during the holidays about abortion. The post was flippant and made light of an important subject. But we can take from it one important lesson: take every opportunity you have to spread the truth about abortion. Abortion hurts women.
[1] D.M. Fergusson et al., Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health, J. Child Psychology & Psychiatry 47:16 (2006).
2 J.R. Cougle et al., Depression associated with abortion and childbirth: A long-term analysis of the NLSY cohort, Med. Sci. Monitor 9(4):CR157 (2003).
LifeNews.com Note: Mailee Smith is a staff counsel at Americans United for Life.
