Monday, January 11, 2010

Abortion — Not As Safe As Abortionists Claim

The link between abortion and breast cancer has been confirmed once again. This time - by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle. And, unlike so many other organizations that try to raise awareness of the very same fact, the Seattle institute (and a number of distinguished cancer experts including Louise Brinton, the chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute,) could hardly be accused of having a "pro-life bias" and employing "pro-life scare tactics". Even the media had to agree to that. Sort of:
And trying to prevent abortions by scaring women with breast cancer would truly be wrong. But so too would be suppressing the risks of abortion or any medical procedure.
Well, thanks for acknowledging the fact that the abortion industry suppresses the risks of abortions. (To say that is to say nothing. As we know, not just the standard informed consent rules, which apply to plastic surgeons, don't apply to abortion providers, but they won't even agree to a common sense requirement to have a sterile operating room to do abortions.)

And what exactly is "truly wrong" with trying to prevent abortions by reminding women of the health risks associated with the procedure? After all, we don't think it's "truly wrong" to try to prevent smoking by "scaring" smokers with lung cancer and other related diseases, do we? If anything, we regard this as raising awareness of the dangers of smoking, not as merely trying to scare smokers with something which is likely, but, obviously, not 100% certain to happen. So, if it's ok to highlight the risks of cancer to discourage as many smokers (and would be smokers) as possible, then why using the same approach to abortions (that too increase the likelihood of cancer) is "truly wrong"?

And, talking about health risks - here are some numbers:
The study found that "a statistically significant 40% increased risk for women who have abortions" exists, and that a " 270% increased risk of triple negative breast cancer (an aggressive form of breast cancer associated with high mortality) among those who used oral contraceptives while under age 18 and a 320% increased risk of triple negative breast cancer among recent users (within 1-5 years) of oral contraceptives," also exists.

This means that women who start using OCs before age 18 multiply their risk of TNBC by 3.7 times and recent users of OCs within the last one to five years multiply their risk by 4.2 times.
So when will we see a big "abortion may result in breast cancer" warning message on the doors of abortion clinics? Or at least - a similar message on the mandatory informed consent form?

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