More Abortion and Breast Cancer

The Wall Street Journal (October 11, 1996)
The Washington Post (October 12, 1996)



New research published in the British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health has again linked abortion with breast cancer. A team of researchers reviewed 23 existing studies on abortion and breast cancer, pooled the studies' data and concluded that a woman who has an abortion has a 30 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer.

But abortion is a sacred cow among the public health establishment. So I don't have to criticize this study again; the public health establishment will do it for me.

As reported in The Washington Post, Lynn Rosenberg, an epidemiologist at Boston University, said:

There is evidence that women grossly under-report abortion,... An [increase in risk of 30 percent] is indistinguishable from [such bias]... We are certainly not going to arrive at the truth by averaging all the studies.

According to Karin Michels, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School ,

[The studies used in the analysis] to date are inadequate to infer with confidence [a relation between abortion and breast cancer].

As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Clark Heath, a vice president at the American Cancer Society, said:

This is a fight between science people and pro-life people. It is a great mistake to start issuing warnings about risks or possible risks when the evidence is so unclear.

Thanks Lynn, Karin and Clark. I can't wait to apply your style of thinking to the epidemiology of air pollution, radon, environmental tobacco smoke, dioxin, DDT, breast implants, environmental estrogens, etc.

Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author.



Copyright © 1996 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved. Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.

G 1