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North Dakota Judge Denies Women Informed Consent

March 30th, 2002

An international women’s group today condemned the decision of North Dakota state court Judge Michael McGuire to deny life-saving medical information to abortion-bound women. In a lawsuit filed by Amy Jo Kjolsrud against the Fargo based Red River Women’s Clinic, McGuire ruled in favor of the clinic, which in 1999 when the suit was filed was distributing a pamphlet claiming that there was no medical research associating abortion with breast cancer. 

Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said “Judge McGuire’s decision denies women the right to informed consent. Women have the right to know that 28 out of 37 studies have linked abortion with breast cancer since 1957. What is the judge’s problem with telling women that much? Don’t we have the right to make autonomous health care decisions?” 

Judge McGuire ruled that the defendant could rely on statements from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society which do not recognize a causal relationship between abortion and the disease. Expert witnesses for the plaintiff had offered evidence to the contrary. Thirteen of 15 U.S. studies report elevated risk. Most of these were funded at least in part by the NCI. 

The NCI’s fact sheets, discussing the research (the latest of which - not coincidentally - was revised less than three weeks before the trial), have been severely criticized by Joel Brind, Ph.D., president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer and former Congressman Tom Coburn, MD. The federal agency was accused of lying about the research paid for by taxpayers on two fact sheets in a March 20, 2002 press release issued by the coalition and by Dr. Brind, an endocrinologist. They are published on these coalition web pages: <http://abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases.htm> and <http://abortionbreastcancer.com/Public_Policy.htm>. 

A researcher working for the American Cancer Society in 1997, Phyllis Wingo, was accused of back pedaling on her evaluation of the research in the coalition’s December 11, 2001 press release. 

Only one day before the judge’s decision, World Net Daily reported that the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, a patients’ advocacy group, had adopted the position that physicians should inform abortion-bound women of the existence of more studies implicating abortion as a risk factor than not. 

Jane Orient, a physician and spokesperson for the medical organization, said “If you look at the number of studies that show a connection, they vastly outnumber the ones that don’t, and the ones that don’t have been criticized for serious methodological flaws.” She indicated that the risk is “substantial, particularly in women who abort their first pregnancy at a young age and who have a family history of breast cancer. It’s something like 800 percent.” She added that patient information “should include the potential connection with breast cancer as well as the long-term psychological risk.” 

Mrs. Malec said, “If Judge McGuire any doubt about a causal relationship between this optional surgical procedure and breast cancer, then what would have been the harm in giving women the benefit of it by erring on the side of caution? Instead, he benefited big business - the abortion industry. Women will die because of his decision. Teenagers are at particularly grave risk. Judge McGuire will have to live with the knowledge that he is responsible for their deaths.” 

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.