| A campaign by a pro-life group to convince women that there’s a link between having an abortion and getting breast cancer doesn’t have any credible scientific basis, says the Canadian Cancer Society.
And the executive director of the Calgary Birth Control Association Sexual and Reproductive Centre, Pamela Krause, questions the motivation behind the campaign.
"(The campaign) could act as a scare tactic and is not really very helpful to a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy," says Krause.
The pro-life group LifeCanada has launched a website (www.abortionbreastcancer.ca) and has put up 38 billboards across Canada, including three in Alberta, to get their message across. The billboards feature the breast cancer ribbon used by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and state "Stop the Coverup."
Joanne Byfield, president of LifeCanada, says her organization decided to launch their campaign because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On its website, the organization argues that women who have abortions have an increased risk of breast cancer because they are delaying childbirth and breastfeeding. Both breastfeeding and giving birth to a child at an earlier age have been proven to reduce the risk of breast cancer.
"This is something Canadian women should be aware of," says Byfield. "This link has been studied for over 50 years. There are 50 some studies that do show an increased risk, and by and large women are not told about the possibility of an increased risk of breast cancer when they choose to have an abortion. We think that is unconscionable.
"Informed consent is a recognized and long standing principle of health care in Canada and it strikes us as wrong that women don’t have this information."
But the Canadian Cancer Society disputes Byfield’s claims.
"Basically, although there are some published studies that suggest a slightly increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had an abortion, the total body of scientific evidence doesn’t support this," says Lori Boychuk, spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society.
LifeCanada alleges on its campaign website that there’s been a major coverup of the link, and Byfield says that’s because "abortion is a sacred cow in this country."
"In Canada, to challenge the status quo on abortion makes you a complete pariah," says Byfield. "Just because we as a group do not think abortion is good for women and children does not mean everything we say can be discounted as biased and everything pro-choice groups say is truth."
However, Boychuk says the society carefully monitors and weighs all scientific evidence on cancer.
"Our number one priority is providing women with the best information that is available and we’re there to serve them and give them support in terms of reliable information that’s science based," says Boychuk.
Boychuk says if women want "reliable" information on breast cancer they should go to www.cancer.ca.
Krause agrees there is no conspiracy to hide information from women and describes the LifeCanada campaign as "unfortunate."
"There is nothing hidden from women who make the choice to have an abortion," she says. "The difficulty is research can be found and statistics can be developed around any issue from a particular bias, and I believe they’re operating from a specific bias."
Krause says the National Cancer Institute (in the U.S.), the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have all refuted a link between abortion and breast cancer. In 2003, the National Cancer Institute brought together 100 of the world’s leading experts on breast cancer and reviewed existing research and the experts concluded there is no link between abortion and breast cancer. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also reviewed available evidence in 2003 and concluded there was no link.
However, Byfield says LifeCanada wants Health Canada to do its own research on the topic and has asked its supporters to send letters to politicians demanding that research be done. |
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