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Quotes From The Experts |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE INDEPENDENT LINK
DELAYED FIRST FULL TERM PREGNANCY (FFTP)
CHILDBEARING AND BREASTFEEDING Quotes from the Experts Medical experts universally agree that childlessness and delaying a first full term pregnancy (FFTP) increase risk of breast cancer. Conversely, the earlier a woman has her first full term pregnancy and the more children a woman has, the lower her risk for breast cancer. Researchers have long believed that breastfeeding was likely to be beneficial, but it was only recently confirmed that the longer a woman breastfeeds over the course of her lifetime, the lower her risk is. Despite the acceptance of these truths, few experts (and none of the anti-cancer organizations) can bring themselves to utter those politically distasteful words, “Abortion causes breast cancer.” There is staggering epidemiological and biological evidence implicating induced abortion as an independent risk factor for the disease. In other words, apart from the known protection a woman gains by having more children, an early FFTP (after marriage) and a longer lifetime duration of breastfeeding, an abortion causes breast cancer in another way - it induces changes in the breasts which leave a woman with more cancer-vulnerable cells than what she had before her pregnancy began. This serves to increase the statistical odds that she will develop breast cancer. The explanation for this makes such perfect biological sense that scientists don’t attempt to challenge it. The increased breast cancer risk is not generally listed on abortion clinic consent forms. We know of only one exception. An abortion clinic in San Antonio, Texas called A Woman’s Choice Quality Health Center included a warning on its medical consent forms as recently as October 2001. The consent form, which patients must sign before the abortion procedure takes place, reads as follows: “I also realize that the following (11) risks and hazards may occur in connection with this particular procedure ... possible increased lifetime risk of breast cancer.” Doctors are legally obligated to inform women of this risk. Physicians who don’t fulfill this legal obligation expose themselves to the risk of medical malpractice lawsuits. (See also our ABC Link and our ABC Summary pages for further quotes). THE INDEPENDENT LINK The following experts have published statements recognizing that abortion independently causes breast cancer, irrespective of each of the following risk-increasing effects of abortion: childlessness, delayed first full term pregnancy (FFTP), decreased childbirth and little or no breastfeeding. Leslie Bernstein, Ph.D., Brian Henderson, R. Ross: "Recently, we found that a first-trimester abortion, whether spontaneous or induced, before the first full-term pregnancy is actually associated with an increase in the risk of breast cancer." [Henderson, B.E., Ross R., Berstein, L.; "Estrogens as a cause of human cancer," The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award Lecture, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California: Cancer Res 48:246-253, 1988] In February of 2003, Leslie Bernstein’s position on the ABC link flip flopped. Leaders of the U.S. National Cancer Institute used Bernstein to present the only viewpoint permitted to be heard at the government agency’s workshop - that abortion does not result in an increased risk of breast cancer. Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., a clinical assistant professor of surgery associated with the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, told the press at a conference sponsored by the Population Research Institute in Santa Clara, California on April 5, 2002 that a teenager who procures an abortion has, “At best ... a 30% risk of breast cancer in her lifetime.” She added that “At worst, if she also has a family history of breast cancer, it will nearly guarantee this.” For this reason, she said taking a teenager in a crisis pregnancy for an abortion amounts to “child abuse.” Dr. Lanfranchi declared under oath in a California lawsuit that “Over the past three or four years, I have spoken with many authorities and people in a position to be well-informed. Some have been straightforward and said that they know it is a risk factor but felt it was ‘too political’ to speak about.” She explained that she’d discussed the research with many physicians and encouraged them to get reproductive histories from their patients. Among those who have, they’ve “found as I did that ... cases of breast cancer in young women are associated with an abortion history.” [[Agnes Bernardo, Pamela Colip, and Saundra Duffy-Hawkins v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties; Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, August 15, 2001] Thomas Stuttaford, M.D., an abortion supporter and a medical columnist for the London Times, authored an article entitled, “Fresh Line of Attack,” on May 17, 2001 in which he wrote that: “Breast cancer is diagnosed in 33,000 women in the U.K. each year; of these, an unusually high proportion had an abortion before eventually starting a family. Such women are up to four times more likely to develop breast cancer.” He added that, “A report by the Royal Statistical Society shows that a termination of pregnancy interrupts the cellular changes that occur in the breast during pregnancy. Once the woman has had children, the effect is less because the cellular changes have been completed....” (emphasis added) Chris Kahlenborn, M.D., author of the book, Breast Cancer: Its Link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill, wrote that, “A woman’s breast is especially sensitive to carcinogenic (i.e., cancer producing) influences before she delivers her first child. When a woman becomes pregnant, a number of hormone levels increase dramatically in her body. Three especially notable ones are estradiol, progesterone (i.e. the female sexual hormones), and hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin). All of these hormones, especially the latter, serve to stimulate immature breast cells to mature into fully differentiated cells. If this process is artificially interrupted by way of an induced abortion, the hormone levels drop suddenly and dramatically, thereby suspending the natural process of maturation of many of the woman’s breast cells. This is referred to as a ‘hormonal blow’ by researchers. These cells are now ‘vulnerable’ to carcinogens because they started the maturation process but were never able to complete it. (Cells that have fully matured are less vulnerable to carcinogens than cells that are in the process of maturation).” [One More Soul, Dayton, Ohio (2000) p. 21] Charles B. Simone, M.D., author of, Breast Health: What You Need to Know, is Clinical Director at the Simone Protective Cancer Institute in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He is a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist and immunologist. He wrote that: "When conception occurs, hormonal changes influence the breast. The milk duct network grows quickly to form other networks that will ultimately produce milk. During this period of tremendous growth and development, breast cells are undergoing great change and are immature or ‘undifferentiated’; hence, they are more susceptible to carcinogens. But when a first full term pregnancy is completed, hormonal changes occur that permanently alter the breast network to greatly reduce the risk of outside carcinogen influence. When a termination occurs in the first trimester, there are no protective effects, and many of the rapidly dividing cells of the breast are left in transitional states....It is in these transitional states of high proliferation and undifferentiation that these cells can undergo transformation to cancer cells.” [Charles B. Simone, M.D., M.M.S., Breast Health: What You Need to Know, Avery Pub. Group, Garden City Park, N.Y. 1995 (p. 147) ISBN 0895296608] John R. Lee, M.D., David Zava, Ph.D. and Virginia Hopkins, authored the book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer. They reported that more and more studies are finding that abortion increases breast cancer risk and suggested that this is providing support for elevated risk independent of the effect of postponing a FFTP. He and his co-authors wrote the following statement about abortion as a risk factor for the disease: "As you've probably noticed throughout this book our message is that estrogen is the smoking gun when it comes to breast cancer. Granted, it's not estrogen per se but rather unbalanced estrogens, synthetic forms of estrogen, and estrogens forced down harmful biochemical pathways that do the damage, but there is no doubt that it's the primary culprit in this disease." (page 216) "Only the first full-term pregnancy conveys (breast cancer) protection. Interrupted pregnancy (miscarriages and abortions) do not afford protection, and research is accumulating that they can actually increase the risk of breast cancer. This may be because the tissue begins to differentiate (mature into cancer-resistant cells) and then is stopped part way through the process." (emphasis added) [Warner Books (2002) p. 30-31] David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics),, executive director of the Christian Medical Association reported in a story by Keith Peters, "Abortion-Breast Cancer Link Real," for Family News in Focus, November 11, 2004. "There is a preponderance of evidence that one abortion doubles the chance of breast cancer and that risk rises even further in subsequent abortions." DELAYED FIRST FULL TERM PREGNANCY (FFTP) The following experts have publicly acknowledged the critical importance of an early FFTP to a woman’s health: Joel Brind, Ph.D., lead author of the only comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) studies implicating abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer and a professor of endocrinology at Baruch College in New York, explained how delaying a FFTP for only one year significantly impacts a woman's lifetime risk for the disease. [Brind et al. (1996) J Epidemiol Community Health 50:481-96] In an affidavit filed in a California lawsuit, Brind wrote that: “Moreover, as discussed herein, having a first full-term pregnancy before age 30 is protective against breast cancer, while aborting the pregnancy results in the loss of this protective effect. Research shows that even a one year delay of the first full-term pregnancy (including through abortion) results in an increased risk of death from breast cancer about ten (10) times greater than the death rate associated with childbirth, which has been estimated by the American Medical Association at 9.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. If first childbirth is delayed by more than one year after the abortion, the risk of breast cancer (and therefore of death from breast cancer) is correspondingly greater.” (emphasis added) [Agnes Bernardo, Pamela Colip, and Saundra Duffy-Hawkins v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties; Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, August 15, 2001] In other words, by delaying a FFTP for just one year, a woman’s risk of dying from breast cancer is about 10 times greater than her risk of dying in childbirth. Yet, women and their doctors have been repeatedly assured by the abortion industry, population control groups, politicians and the popular media that abortion is safer than childbirth. The “Abortion is safer than childbirth” myth is a perfect example of the “Big Lie,” a label used by the late German dictator, Adolph Hitler, to describe the criminal use of propaganda fed to the public for political or official purposes. Hitler lied to the German people when he attributed Germany’s economic difficulties to the Jewish people. He privately admitted to the late Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, that his scapegoating of Jews was a “Big Lie.” He wrote in Mein Kampf that: "The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. . . ."Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked, later on, whether he told the truth or not. It is not Right that matters but Victory. Have no pity. Adopt a brutal attitude. . . . Right is on the side of the strongest." [Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Mein Kampf (1925) vol. 1, ch. 10] Nancy Krieger, Ph.D. published a paper in 1989 in which she acknowledged the importance of an early first full term pregnancy. In the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, she wrote: “Conversely, early age at FFTP [first full-term pregnancy] consistently has emerged as the strongest protective factor (against breast cancer).” She explained why early FFTP provides a woman with increased protection against breast cancer and hypothesized that there might be an independent link between the abortion of a first pregnancy and the incidence of the disease. She also said: "According to this hypothesis, an early first full-term pregnancy would provide the greatest protection against breast cancer by drastically reducing, early on, the presence of undifferentiated and hence vulnerable breast cells, thereby decreasing the risk of subsequent transformation . . . Other types of pregnancies, however, might increase risk of breast cancer. If a woman's first pregnancy resulted in a first trimester abortion, the dramatic rise in undifferentiated cells that takes place during the first trimester would not be followed by the marked differentiation occurring during the second and third trimesters. The consequent sharp increase in the number of vulnerable cells would thus elevate breast cancer risk. " [13:205-223] Dr. Samuel S. Epstein is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental and occupational causes of cancer and an abortion supporter. He is a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and founder and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition in Chicago. In his book, The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, he said, “For example, if you were to have an abortion at the age of 25, your risk of developing breast cancer at the age of 60 would increase from 1 in 24 to about 1 in 18, especially if you have more than one abortion before your first full-term pregnancy.” [(1997) pp. 36-37] Susan Love, M.D., a breast surgeon and co-founder of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Dr. Love offered advice to women in her Breast Book about the importance of an early FFTP. She said, "And the younger you are when you have your first child, the lower your (breast cancer) risk." (Read our August 21, 2002 press release critical of the gross inaccuracies, omissions and misinformation about the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) research which appears on the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s website). [1995, p. 242] Lynn Rosenberg, Ph.D., of Boston Medical School testified for Florida abortion providers represented by the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in 1999 and agreed with the statement that a pregnant 15 year old will have a higher breast cancer risk if she aborts her pregnancy than if she chooses a full term pregnancy. She is an abortion supporter and a long time denier of the ABC link, despite the fact that her own research has shown increased risk. [Rosenberg et al. (1988) Int J Epidemiol 127:981-9] Dr. Eric J. Feuer, a National Cancer Institute statistician, told the New York Times on April 9, 2002 that, starting in the mid-1930's, the incidence of breast cancer has climbed about 1 percent a year, allegedly for unknown reasons, but factors like delayed childbearing might be responsible for this surge. So why does the U.S. government pour billions of dollars into population control programs throughout the world? Why do the federal and state governments give taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood through Title X programs for the distribution of abortifacients (drugs which chemically cause abortions)? [Gina Kolata, “Breast Cancer: Mammography Finds More Tumors. Then the Debate Begins.” April 9, 2002] Troy Parkins wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1993 that, "Scientists agree that a full-term pregnancy at a young age protects against breast cancer." [85:1987]. CHILDBEARING AND BREASTFEEDING Leslie Bernstein et al. 1985 offered further support to the known benefits of childbearing, reported that "...estrogen levels were significantly lower (22%) in parous (childbearing) women compared to those of nulliparous (childless) women...." In other words, women who’d given birth were found to have much lower levels of estrogen than childless women. Estrogen, a known tumor promoter, is the culprit implicated with most of the known risk factors for breast cancer. [Leslie Bernstein, Malcolm C. Pike, Ronald K. Ross, Howard L. Judd, James B. Brown, and Brian E. Henderson. “Estrogen and Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin Levels in Nulliparous and Parous Women.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute (1985) 74:741-745] Professor Valerie Beral, a long time denier of the ABC link, gathered data on “breastfeeding patterns and other aspects of childbearing” from 47 studies conducted in 30 countries for her meta-analysis published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. She reported the following: “. . . major reasons for the high incidence rates of breast cancer in (developed) countries are the small family size and the short duration of breastfeeding that were characteristic of women in these countries during the past century. Indeed, if women had larger family sizes and longer lifetime durations of breastfeeding . . . the cumulative incidence of breast cancer in developed countries is estimated to be reduced by more than half (from 6.3 to 2.7 per 100 women) by age 70 years. Part of this estimated reduction in incidence is due to the large family size, but almost two-thirds is due to breastfeeding. . . .Nevertheless, the average family size and duration of breastfeeding are declining rapidly in (developing) countries, and breast cancer incidence has subsequently begun to rise, especially in women aged younger than 50 years.” (emphasis added) [Beral V (July 20, 2002) The Lancet 360:187-95] |
