There is a relationship between abortion and an increase in breast cancer risk
Public health experts say that pregnancies ending as either spontaneous or induced abortions do not have adverse effects on women’s subsequent risk of developing breast cancer.
Public Health Expert David Grimes: Study’s Methodology Was “Grossly Inadequate.” In an interview with Media Matters, Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor of OB/GYN at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and former chief of the Abortion Surveillance Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the study’s methodology “one of the worst” he had seen. He stated that it was “grossly inadequate to attempt to gather detailed personal histories about women’s reproductive lives by telephone,” adding that the study was not designed to study the relationship between abortion and cancer.
“In studies of this type,” he said, “the persistent under-reporting of prior abortions among healthy controls (social desirability bias) produces a spurious relationship between abortion and later breast cancer.” Hence, studies that “rely on only self-reports of abortion (as opposed to medical records) are not credible.” [Media Matters, 12/1/11]
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: No Causal Relationship Between Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk. The American Cancer Society notes that public health experts have rejected past studies trying to link abortion to breast cancer:
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Gynecologic Practice also reviewed the… continue reading
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