Dear Friends:

Senator Sam Brownback held a subcommittee hearing on the health consequences of abortion late last week. The hearing took place before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, and it was called "The Consequences of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton."

The senator observed that abortion proponents in 1973 justified the legalization of abortion by arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that it was necessary for women's health.  Yet, it doesn't appear that abortion zealots want to consider the health of the mother when scientific evidence shows it has grave consequences for women and their children.

According to several witnesses testifying before the subcommittee, induced abortion has devastated the physical and mental health of women and damaged the health of their children born in subsequent pregnancies. Some of the serious health consequences discussed included increased risks of breast cancer, future premature birth, placenta previa, ovarian and endometrial cancers, ectopic pregnancy, infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, chlamydia trachomatis, suicide and other forms of self-harm.

Sincerely,
Karen Malec
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer

ABORTION-BREAST CANCER NEWS HEADLINES

"The Consequences of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton," The Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, Thursday, June 23, 2005

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback held a subcommittee hearing on June 23, 2005 for the purpose of examining "The Consequences of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton." These are companion court cases that effectively struck down state laws prohibiting induced abortion.

Brownback is chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.  He noted that legal scholars "from across the political spectrum" have severely criticized Roe and Doe because they lack firm grounding in constitutional law and have "no meaningful foundation" in American tradition.

Norma McCorvey (better known as Jane Roe in the court case, Roe v. Wade) and Sandra Cano (the plaintiff in the court case, Doe v. Bolton) each testified against Roe and Doe and discussed the adverse effects of these cases in their lives.

This discussion, however, will focus primarily on testimony concerning the health effects of abortion.

Teresa Stanton Collett is a Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She writes about family law and, in particular, about abortion.  At this time, she is serving as special attorney general for the State of Oklahoma in an effort to defend two state laws concerning abortion.  She is also serving as an attorney for several New Hampshire legislators before the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to defend the state's parental notification law.  She formerly served on the Texas Supreme Court Subadvisory Committee whose purpose was to recommend court rules so that the state could effect its parental notification law.

Collett testified that Roe and Doe "have significantly undermined the well being of women and children in the United States, as well as seriously damaged the political fabric of American civil society."  She maintained that women did not need abortion to secure political, economic and social equality with men. Women had already made "considerable strides" in these areas by 1972.  She cited a 1972 report from the U.S. Census Bureau to support her argument.  It showed that women with four or more years of college were just as likely as men to be made "professional, technical, administrative or managerial workers."

Collett said Roe and Doe caused American women to "adopt the sterile 'male model'" of childlessness in order to achieve the equality they desired in the workplace. It gave employers and others an excuse not to accommodate "the unique maternal capacity of women."

Legalized abortion became more of a macho Playboy right than a woman's right. It gave husbands and boyfriends an "out" when women became unexpectedly pregnant.  It encouraged men to abandon their responsibilities to their wives, girlfriends and children.  It encouraged men to pressure pregnant women to have abortions.

Collett identified several health problems associated with induced abortion, some of which are deadly.  They include increased risks of breast cancer, future premature birth, placenta previa, ovarian and endometrial cancers, ectopic pregnancy, infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, chlamydia trachomatis, suicide and other forms of self-harm.

Research shows that childbirth and breastfeeding reduce a woman's risk for three cancers - breast, ovarian and endometrial - reported Collett.

Overexposure to the hormone estrogen, a known carcinogen, is the culprit in the development of breast and endometrial cancers.  Women's ovaries produce estrogen naturally. Women are overexposed to estrogen during every monthly menstrual cycle.  Childbirth and breastfeeding suspend women's monthly menstrual periods.

Collett pointed out that the cancer establishment recognizes childlessness and delayed first birth as risk factors for breast cancer.  She cited the landmark World Health Organization study in 1970 by Harvard researchers, Brian MacMahon and his colleagues, who firmly established in the medical literature that having an early first birth is especially critical if women are to prevent breast cancer.

The study's authors reported that the woman who waits until age 35 to have her first birth has three times the breast cancer risk of the woman who has her first child before age 18. In the U.S., abortion is primarily used to delay the birth of a first child.

Importantly, MacMahon et al. showed that it isn't "a little bit of pregnancy" that confers protection against breast cancer.  Miscarriage and induced abortion don't protect women from the disease.  Only a pregnancy that lasts until at least 32 weeks gestation confers protection, but women receive the greatest protection from a full term pregnancy.  Cancer fundraising businesses, however, often mislead women about the protective effect of childbearing when they suggest that it is "pregnancy" that confers protection.

Collett explained that childbirth helps to protect women from ovarian cancer. "Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer, but ranks fourth as the cause of cancer death in women," said Collett.  It's more likely to be fatal than breast cancer because it's more difficult for doctors to diagnose at an early stage.

Endometrial cancer occurs in the inner lining of the uterus. Childbirth reduces risk of this disease by causing malignant and pre-malignant cells to be shed from the inner lining. The more children a woman has, the lower her risk is for endometrial cancer and breast cancer.

Female breast cancer is expected to claim approximately 40,410 lives this year. Ovarian cancer will claim an estimated 16,210 lives, and endometrial cancer will take 7,310 lives.

If the cancer fundraising industry had wanted to prevent the second and the fourth greatest causes of cancer death in women (breast and ovarian cancers) and the fourth most common cancer in U.S. women (endometrial cancer), the industry would have warned women about the deadly effects of abortion.

Two witnesses raised the spectre of back alley abortions. Karen O'Connor, Professor of Government at American University, and Dr. Ken Edelin, Associate Dean at Boston University of Medicine, repeated the unsupportable claim that "soaring" numbers of women died during the pre-Roe years after having obtained illegal abortions.

Of course, any investigator who really wanted to determine how many women died from illegal abortions faced tremendous obstacles.  Women and their doctors didn't readily report these abortions.  Nor was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reporting huge numbers of deaths from illegal abortions.

A co-founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) in 1969, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, has often spoken about the dishonest methods used to legalize abortion in the U.S. Nathanson was the director of the New York City-based Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health.  At one time, it was the largest abortion clinic in the world.

Nathanson claims that he and his colleagues made up the number of deaths that supposedly resulted from illegal abortions. During the pre-Roe period, he and other NARAL doctors repeatedly lied to the media by claiming that 10,000 women died of illegal abortions yearly.  Nathanson, who quit performing abortions in the late 1970's after producing the video, the Silent Scream, estimates the real figure to be between 200 and 250 women. The use of penicillin beginning in the 1940's, as well as the development of better antibiotics in the 1960's, reduced the risks of death for patients who developed infections.

During her testimony, O'Connor  argued that "Indeed, a woman's risk of death during pregnancy and childbirth is ten times greater than the risk of death from legal abortion." Research cited by Collett shows O'Connor's claim to be a myth.

Professor Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, readily dismissed "safe abortion"  mythology when he provided an affidavit to a California court three years ago.  He said in his affidavit that research shows that the woman who delays the birth of her first child for only one year increases her risk of dying from breast cancer to an extent that is ten times greater than the risk of dying in childbirth (using American Medical Association statistics). [Agnes Bernardo, et al. v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, et al.; Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego]

"These are serious consequences," concluded U.S. Senator Mike DeWine. "They are not legal consequences. They are not theoretical ones. They are not even political ones. They are real consequences. And, it is our job in the U.S. Senate to do something about them."

Collett's testimony can be found at
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1553&wit_id=4396

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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.

Tax-deductible, credit card donations can be made at www.AbortionBreastCancer.com. Donations can be mailed to: the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, P.O. Box 957133, Hoffman Estates, IL 60195. The IRS recognizes the coalition as a 501(c)3 organization.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
www.AbortionBreastCancer.com

Breast Cancer Prevention Institute
www.BCPInstitute.org

Polycarp Research Institute
www.polycarp.org

This newsletter can be viewed online at:
http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/news/050628/index.htm