Breast cancer-abortion link highlighted by Chinese study

Nov 13, 2009 / 05:31 am

Chinese researchers claim to have found a 17 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had induced abortions.

Peng Xing and other researchers in the Department of Oncology at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University enrolled in their study 1,417 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,587 women without a prior breast cancer.

The researchers’ findings indicated that induced abortion increased a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a “statistically significant” rate of 17 percent.

According to the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (CABC), U.S. researchers have said that Chinese studies on a link between abortion and breast cancer exclude “report bias” because abortion isn’t stigmatized in China and Chinese women are considered reliable reporters for their abortions.

The CABC said a Turkish study published earlier this year reported a 66 percent increased breast cancer risk among women who have had abortions.

Karen Malec, CABC president, said the Chinese and Turkish studies are relevant to the debate in the U.S. over government-funded abortion.

“Government-funded abortion means more dead American women from breast cancer," she charged.

The CABC claimed that both studies show “honest research” in contrast to U.S. and Western governmental agencies or organizations that the coalition believes are “tethered to abortion ideology and politics.”