Conservapedia #sexist

Conservapedia #sexist conservapedia.com

The vast majority of scientific studies have shown that abortion causes an increase in breast cancer, including 16 out of 17 statistically significant studies. Studies showing that abortion increases breast cancer predate the political controversy. It is undisputed that childbirth protects against breast cancer, and thus early termination of pregnancy must increase the risk of cancer for the mother compared to carrying that same pregnancy to birth. Yet the abortion industry conceals this increased risk, just as the tobacco industry concealed its cancer risk for decades.

61 comments

old comment by David B.

There's certainly no connection to ovarian cancer...

Incomplete pregnancy and risk of ovarian cancer: results from two Australian case-control studies and systematic review.
Dick, Siskind et al, Cancer Causes & Control, November 2009, 9:1571-1585.

"Although full-term pregnancies reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, it has not been conclusively established whether incomplete pregnancies also influence risk. We investigated the relationship between a history of incomplete pregnancy and incident epithelial ovarian cancer among over 4,500 women who participated in two large Australian population-based case-control studies in 1990-1993 and 2002-2005. They provided responses to detailed questions about their reproductive histories and other personal factors. Summary odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI) derived for each study using the same covariates were aggregated. We found no significant associations between the number of incomplete pregnancies and ovarian cancer, for parous (OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.89, 1.08) or nulliparous (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.75, 1.48) women, nor for the number of spontaneous or induced abortions and ovarian cancer for parous women (OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.82, 1.09; OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.86, 1.36) or nulliparous women (OR = 1.2, 95% CI: 0.6, 2.4; OR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.47, 1.38), respectively. A systematic review of 37 previous studies of the topic confirmed our findings that a history of incomplete pregnancy does not influence a woman's risk of epithelial ovarian cancer."

Mind you, I did find a recent paper that claimed that abortion was firmly linked to the risk of breast cancer, it was in a law digest and was written by Joel Brind, a genuine physiologist who hopes to "spare many women the agony of breast cancer", but tellingly also writes regularly for National Right to Life News.

old comment by Gloria

No one is arguing that abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer, compared to carrying the child to term and raising it. We know that childbirth and breastfeeding reduce your risk of cancer. What has never been conclusively demonstrated* is that there is any increased risk of breast cancer from abortion compared to not getting pregnant in the first place, which if I recall correctly, is something conservapedia encourages. This information is not a secret (except, perhaps, from you.) It's just not a deciding factor in the abortion debate, because "might damage your health, maybe" is not grounds for making something illegal.

On a side not, you wouldn't know statistical significance or the scientific method if they did a pas-de-deux on your nose, so I'm not inclined to take your word for it about which studies were reliable.

*and when I say "not conclusively demonstrated" I mean "the evidence so far is against it."

old comment by Swede

About 25 of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortions before the woman is even aware that she's pregnant. Another 12 percent or so end in spontaneous abortions before week 12. Where are the studies that show an increase in breast cancer for all these women? After all, most deliberate abortions are done before week 12, too.

Taking both spontaneous and deliberate abortions in concideration, it's possible that each and every woman has had one pregnancy terminated. Wich means that each and every woman runs the risk of breast cancer.
But, we knew that from the start, didn't we?

Some men develop breast cancer too, you know. Did they also have abortions, or what?

Abortion industry? What is that? Over here we have women's clinics that deal with all kinds of medicine specific to women. The same doctors deal with pregnancies, contraceptions, cervic cancer tests, abortions, etc.

old comment by David B.

@Trivia Jockey: "Giving birth reduces risk of breast cancer, so aborting a fetus means you don't get that reduced risk, therefore aborting carriers an increased risk of breast cancer"

That's what having a "higher understanding of statistics" gets you, apparently.

Dossus, Allen et al in the International Journal of Cancer (November 2009) found no link between abortion and BC, nor between breast feeding and BC, it was your cumulative exposure to oestrogen and progesterone that was significant. While the Committe on Gynecologic Practice wrote, in Obstetrics and Gynecology (June 2009), "Early studies of the relationship between prior induced abortion and breast cancer risk were methodologically flawed. More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk."

TJ has hit it pretty much squarely on the head, it seems you can have one child and a dozen abortions with no more risk of breast cancer than someone who had only one child. By those lights any kind of contraception, including abstinence, increases your cancer risk.

I await Conservatardia's tirade against the evils of abstinence only sex-education with bated breath...

old comment by Swede

The political controversy is centuries old, it started long before breast cancer was even classified as a separate disease.

Sorry, no, that's not how, well, life works. Not receiving protection doesn't increase the risk, but keep the risk at "average" level. Being pregnant and giving birth carry their own very significant risks to the woman, and might kill more women than breast-cancer. One woman every two minutes dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, after all.

Besides, most people having an abortion have already had one or more kids, or have one or more kids later in life. Those who definitely don't want any kids usually get a vasectomy or a sterilization, so they are least likely to need abortions.

The tobacco industry makes tens of billions of dollars each year on people disregarding the significantly increased risk of cancer that tobacco causes. The "abortion industry" is mostly tax-funded (at least in civilized countries) and probably makes just a little bit more than it spends.

Conservapedia #sexist conservapedia.com

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