Coaliton on Abortion/Breast Cancer - "British women's right to choose is under covert attack" and "My research is not 'junk science"

Dear Friends:

Libby Brooks, a journalist for the liberal British newspaper, The Guardian, has shown that she is too emotionally invested in abortion to be able to write about the abortion-breast cancer link objectively.

In an October 17, 2007 article, "British women's right to choose is under covert attack," she hysterically warned that British women could lose the "right" to abort because of Patrick Carroll's new study linking abortion with breast cancer. [1]

Brooks is not worried about women dying from breast cancer. She's worried about the possibility that abortion will be made legally inaccessible because of the abortion-breast cancer link.

To support her claim that abortion does not raise breast cancer risk, Brooks used two previously discredited studies - Beral et al. 2004 and Michels et al. 2007. [2,3] These are studies that have been harshly criticized in medical journals because they are severely flawed. [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

When will journalists catch on that unethical scientists are using them as patsies to falsely persuade women of the safety of abortion? Are they so naive as to think that British and American scientists are incapable of committing the kind of atrocities that Nazi doctors committed? Have they forgotten about the Tuskegee Scandal in the U.S.?

Brooks reported that the U.K.'s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recognize the abortion-breast cancer link. (Doesn't she know that they do abortions?)

She has conveniently omitted the fact that the RCOG had previously included a warning to its abortionists in 2000, which said the link "could not be disregarded." [11] The RCOG quietly removed the warning a few months later only after the press learned of it and the political heat became unbearable.

Brooks is seemingly unaware of the fact that childlessness and delaying the birth of a first child are universally recognized breast cancer risks that can result from an abortion.

She is also unaware of the fact that premature birth before 32 weeks gestation raises breast cancer risk [12,13,14,15] and that the Institute of Medicine lists abortion as a risk factor for having a subsequent premature birth. [16]

Brooks unfairly labeled the work of Patrick Carroll as "junk science." (It is always best to resort to name-calling and pejorative labels when one cannot debate an issue.) Brooks is a bit too overwrought to be writing about this subject.

Carroll has responded with a letter to The Guardian. You can read it below.

Sincerely,

Karen Malec

Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer

ABORTION-BREAST CANCER NEWS HEADLINES

"British women's right to choose is under covert attack"

By Libby Brooks

The Guardian

October 17, 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2192579,00.html

Letter to the Editor

"My research is not 'junk science"

By Patrick Carroll

The Guardian

Saturday, December 22, 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2231332,00.html

References:

1. Carroll, P. The breast cancer epidemic: modeling and forecasts based on abortion and other risk factors." J Am Phys Surg Vol. 12, No. 3 (Fall 2007) 72-78. Available at:

<http://www.jpands.org/vol12no3/carroll.pdf>.

2. Beral V, Bull D, Doll R, Peto R, Reeves G. Collaborative Group of Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and abortion: collaborative reanalysis of data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 83,000 women with breast cancer from 16 countries. Lancet 2004;363:1007-16.

3. Michels K, Xue Fei, Colditz G., Willett W. Induced and Spontaneous Abortion and Incidence of Breast Cancer Among Young Women. Arch Int Med 167:814-820.

4. Lanfranchi A. The abortion-breast cancer link revisited. Ethics and Medics (November 2004) Vol. 29, No. 11, p. 1-4. Available at:

http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/news/041120/index.htm

5. Furton E. Editorial. The corruption of science by ideology. Ethics and Medics (Dec. 2004) Vol. 29, No. 11, p. 1-2. Available at:

http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/E+MDec2004-EFurtonarticle.PDF

6. Schlafly A. Legal implications of a link between abortion and breast cancer. J Am Phys Surgeons 2005;10:11-14. Available at:

http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/aschlafly.pdf

7. Brind J. The abortion-breast cancer connection. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly Summer 2005; p. 303-329.

<http://www.AbortionBreastCancer.com/Brind_NCBQ.PDF>.

8. Brind J. Induced abortion as an independent risk factor for breast cancer: A critical review of recent studies based on prospective data. J Am Phys Surg Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter 2005) 105-110. Available at: <http://www.jpands.org/vol10no4/brind.pdf>.

9. Brind J. Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk: A Critical Analysis of the Report of the Harvard Nurses Study II. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Summer 2007) Vol. 12, No. 2, p. 38-39. Available at:

<http://www.jpands.org/vol12no2/brind.pdf>.

10. Rooney B. Letter. Abortion and Breast Cancer. J Am Phys Surg (Fall 2007) Vol. 12, No. 3, p. 67. Available at:

<http://www.jpands.org/vol12no3/correspondence.pdf>.

11. Evidence-based Guideline #7 (2000) RCOG Press, pp. 29-30.

12. Melbye M, Wohlfahrt J, Andersen A-M N, Westergaard T, Andersen PK. Preterm delivery and risk of breast cancer. Bri J Cancer 1999;80:609-13.

13. Hsieh C-c, Wuu J, Lambe M, Trichopoulos D, et al Delivery of premature newborns and maternal breast-cancer risk. Lancet 1999;353-1239.

14. Vatten LJ, et al. Pregnancy related protection against breast cancer depends on length of gestation. Br J Cancer 2002;87:289-90.

15. Innes K and Byers T. First pregnancy characteristics and subsequent breast cancer risk among young women. Int J Cancer 2004; 112:306-311.

16. Preterm birth: Causes, Consequences and Prevention. Press Release. Institute of Medicine, July 13, 2006. Available at:

<http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3740/25471/35813.aspx>.

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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 http://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

http://www.AbortionBreastCancer.com

Breast Cancer Prevention Institute

http://www.BCPInstitute.org

Polycarp Research Institute

http://www.polycarp.org