The abortion-breast cancer link: a medical-legal nightmare on the horizon.

• Author: Brind, Joel
• Position: 140825970
• Pages: 37(6)

The Autumn 2005 issue of this journal contained an excellent article by Charles Francis, Q.C., on problems resulting from poor medical standards in abortion practice. One of the negative consequences for women undergoing abortion which Mr. Francis discussed was the link between abortion and breast cancer (known as the A.B.C. link). Mr. Francis highlighted a particular 2000 legal case in Australia --the first of its kind--in which the abortion practitioner settled for damages for failure to warn the plaintiff patient about the A.B.C. link.

The evidence in that case was largely derived from research in the United States In the United States, two other, similar cases have since been adjudicated in the patients' favour, also noted by Mr. Francis. However, being the venue for the first such case was not the only significant role for Australia vis-a-vis the A.B.C. link. In fact, it is research in Australia that has most clearly evidenced not only the link, but the suppression of the very fact of its existence.

Mr. Francis did not discuss at length the case for this suppression of scientific evidence, merely stating that "some rather dubious material has been produced suggesting that there is no such link". In fact, despite convincing evidence having been produced in medical journals dating back nearly half a century, the A.B.C. link has been the object of an ever intensifying cover-up for nearly a quarter century. Remarkably, this disinformation extends to the government public health agencies, medical societies and journals, and voluntary anti-cancer societies.

Between the late 1950s and the early 1980s, a number of epidemiological studies reported a higher incidence of breast cancer among women who had undergone abortion. These were, however, relatively few studies in number, and they typically included abortion as one of many variables that comprise a woman's reproductive history. The elements of reproductive history are necessarily included in breast cancer studies, because it is well established that, for example, the number of children (parity) and maternal age at first childbirth are known to influence the risk of future breast cancer. In such studies, the contribution of any factors toward increased or decreased risk are reported in terms of relative risk (R.R.). A R.R. exceeding unity signifies increased risk associated with the given factor; R.R. less than unity signifies decreased risk, and R.R. = 1 signifies no effect of the given factor on breast cancer risk.

In 1996, our research team published a comprehensive review and meta-analysis (a meta-analysis combines the data of many studies, to gain greater statistical power) of the A.B.C. link in the British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. At that time, 17 out of 23 studies worldwide had reported increased risk of breast cancer associated with abortion. While this is indeed a lopsided majority, and...