What if I have had an abortion?

Karen Malec
Reproduced with Permission
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer

If You Have Had An Abortion . . .

If you have had an abortion, then be sure to inform your physician of your reproductive history and obtain his or her advice about early detection of breast cancer. Because of the active involvement of the National Cancer Institute and other anti-cancer organizations to cover up the abortion-breast cancer link, your physician might be unaware of the existing studies dating back to 1957 which have implicated abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer. We strongly recommend that you take the information from our web site and from Dr. Brind's web site www.BCPInstitute.org and show it to your physician.

In addition, please share our "Dear Doctor" letter with your physician to make him or her aware of the potential for medical malpractice lawsuits and the need for doctors to obtain informed consent, even among those doctors who simply refer for abortions.

Dr. Brind's web site contains important information for women who have had abortions. We recommend that you click on the word, "Estrogen," after going to his home page.

In addition, Dr. Chris Kahlenborn, a Pennsylvania internist, offers valuable advice to women who've had abortions in his book, Breast Cancer: Its Link to Abortion and the Birth Control Pill. He discusses, among other things, the importance of drugs which can reduce breast cancer risk for women who've had abortions. He makes the following recommendations:

For Prevention of Breast Cancer:

A major educational effort is needed to raise awareness in physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and especially the laity regarding controllable risk factors as well as protective factors for breast cancer and the other diseases noted above. Women must be informed of the risks of both hormonal contraceptives and induced abortion especially when they have additional risk factors such as a family history of breast cancer, being less than 18 years of age, or being a black American.

Women need to be told about Natural Family Planning methods, none of which increase cancer risk. Women must be informed of practices that reduce breast cancer risk such as long-term breastfeeding, bearing a child at a young age, and bearing more than one child. The use of Vitamin A may be of benefit, though this should be avoided by women who could become pregnant as it may (rarely) cause birth defects.

For Women with Identified Breast Cancer Risks:

Women who have had induced abortions and/or used oral contraceptive pills, especially at an early age, need lifetime physician monitoring. They (and all women) should consistently perform self-breast exams. They should also seriously consider protective strategies such as extended breastfeeding and/or use of Vitamin A. Tamoxifen and drugs similar to it have been found to decrease the risk of breast cancer in certain groups of women. A report by the Eli Lilly company stated that Evista (raloxifene), an artificial hormone given to some postmenopausal women to prevent osteoporosis, may reduce breast cancer risk (Company Press Release, Eli Lilly manufacturer, 12/11/98). Neither drug should be given to pre- or peri-menopausal women who might conceive. Additional exposure to risk factors such as repeat abortion or additional hormone (eg, contraceptive) use should be avoided.

For Women with Breast Cancer:

Women who already have breast cancer should be treated with the appropriate combination of surgery and/or radiation and/or chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy. They should ask their physicians about the effectiveness of Vitamin A, and should be encouraged to ask about new treatments such as "virus infecting tumor cells," which are currently being studied, as well as new medicines which target specific proteins or genes that a breast cancer cell may produce (eg, the drug Herceptin). Herceptin has been used to treat a type of breast cancer known as HER-2/neu, which is more common in women who have used oral contraceptive pills at an early age (Ranstam, 1992). If the patient with breast cancer is pregnant, the baby should not be aborted as abortion markedly reduces the mother's life expectancy (Clark and Chua, 1989). [Kahlenborn, One More Soul, Dayton, Ohio; p. 262-264]

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