Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Press Release
Contact: Karen Malec, 847-421-4000
Date: October 18, 2006

Oxford Study Denying Abortion-Cancer Link "Seriously Flawed in the Direction of Covering Up the Link" 

Oxford scientists first covered up the abortion-breast cancer link with the publication of the 1982 study, Vessey et al., whose authors claimed, "The results are entirely reassuring, being, in fact, more compatible with protective effects (of abortion) than the reverse."  The study, however, was irrelevant because it included "only a handful of women" who'd had abortions. [1]

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Oxford cover-up, the university's scientists have authored a fifth study denying an abortion-cancer link. [2] 

The authors, led by Gillian Reeves, conceded that childbearing reduces risk, but failed to compare the effect of having an abortion with the effect of having a full term pregnancy. They covered up the substantial increase in risk associated with the loss of the protective effect of a full term pregnancy.

Two breast cancer risks are associated with abortion - the loss of the protective effect of a full term pregnancy (the universally recognized risk) and the independent link (the debated risk).  The study, Reeves et al., concerns only the second risk. The independent link addresses this question: Does an the woman who has an abortion have a higher breast cancer risk than she would have had if she hadn't had that pregnancy?

By contrast, the first risk (omitted by Reeves et al.) has to do with this question: Does the woman who has an abortion have a greater risk than does the woman who has a full term pregnancy?  Experts universally agree that the post-abortive woman does have a higher risk than does the woman who has a baby.

Professor Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, maintains that the methodology is "seriously flawed in the direction of covering up the link."  Both abortions and breast cancer diagnosis were included right up to the same year - 2000.  Many women were over 40 when abortion was legalized in their respective countries.  Therefore, many younger women with recent abortions were compared to older breast cancer patients who were too old to have been exposed to legal abortions during most of their fertile years. 

Brind said, "This sort of bad science is becoming disappointingly familiar.  It is similar to the flaws in the Danish study, Melbye et al. 1997." [11]

Reeves et al. is one of 28 studies with unpublished abortion data that had been included in a review of 52 studies for the journal Lancet in 2004. [3]  The review, Oxford's fourth attempt to cover up the link, is still used to mislead women about the cancer risk. Four experts criticized the review, independently of one another. [4,5,6,7,8]

Last year, Dr. Brind authored a review of ten studies [5], including two Oxford papers. [9,10]  He concluded that they "embody many serious weaknesses and flaws" and "do not invalidate" the larger body of research supporting a link.

"Cancer researchers are supposed to be dedicated to protecting human lives, not serving the abortion industry," asserted Karen Malec, president of the Coalition.

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.

References:

1. Vessey M, et al. Oral contraceptive use and abortion before first term pregnancy in relation to breast cancer risk. Br J Cancer 1982;45:327.

2. Reeves G , Kan S, Key T, Tjønneland A, Olsen A, et al. Breast cancer risk in relation to abortion: Results from the EPIC study. International Journal of Cancer 2006;119;7: 1741 - 1745.

3. 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.

4. Brind J. The abortion-breast cancer connection. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly Summer 2005; p. 303-329.
<http://www.AbortionBreastCancer.com/Brind_NCBQ.PDF>.

5. 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>.

5. 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>.

7. 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>.

8. 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>.

9. Brewster D, Stockton D, Dobbie R, Bull D, Beral D. Risk of breast cancer after miscarriage or induced abortion: a Scottish record linkage case-control study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2005;59:283-287.

10. Goldacre MJ, Kurina LM, Seagroatt V, Yeates. Abortion and breast cancer: a case-control record linkage study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:336-337.

11. Melbye M, Wohlfahrt J, Olson JH, Frisch M, Westergaard T, Helweg-Larsen K, Andersen PK. Induced abortion and the risk of breast cancer. N Engl J Med 1997;336:81-85.