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The National Cancer Institute (NCI) workshop in 2003 that persuaded women that it was “well established” that “abortion is not associated with increased breast cancer risk,” has reversed her position and now admits that abortion and oral contraceptives raise breast cancer risks.
U.S. National Cancer Institute researcher Dr. Louise Brinton, who was the chief organizer of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) workshop in 2003 that persuaded women that it was “well established” that “abortion is not associated with increased breast cancer risk,” has reversed her position and now admits that abortion and oral contraceptives raise breast cancer risks.
An April 2009 study by Jessica Dolle et al. of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center examining the relationship between oral contraceptives (OCs) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of breast cancer associated with high mortality in women under age 45, contained an admission from Dr. Brinton and her colleagues that abortion raises breast cancer risk by 40%. The study found that “a statistically significant 40% increased risk for women who have abortions” exists, and that a “ 270% increased risk of triple negative breast cancer (an aggressive form of breast cancer associated with high mortality) among those who used oral contraceptives while under age 18 and a 320% increased risk of triple negative breast cancer among recent users (within 1–5 years) of oral contraceptives,” also exists.
Last year, studies from Turkey and China also reported statistically significant risk increases for women who had abortions. The Turkish study reported a 66% increased risk of breast cancer for women with abortions while the Chinese study found a statistically significant 17% increased breast cancer risk among Chinese women who had induced abortions.
A letter, signed by doctors and pro-woman organizations (including Anglicans for Life on behalf of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign) was sent to President Obama and the leaders of Congress calling for an investigation of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. It puts political leaders on notice of a discrepancy between what the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) says about the breast cancer risks of abortion and oral contraceptives (OCs) —”the pill”—and what Louise Brinton, the NCI’s Chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, has reported in her research. The letter asks Congress to investigate the NCI’s failure to issue timely warnings about breast cancer risks and asks political leaders to remove public funding for abortion from all legislation being considered by this Congress.
