Pro Bono Publico
The Indianapolis Star has published the following letter I wrote to the editor, under the title Lawmakers were right to include link to abortion:
The Indiana House recently passed legislation that would require women considering abortion to be informed of “the possibility of increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion and the natural protective effect of a completed pregnancy in avoiding breast cancer.”
The legislative language quoted is accurate and objective. The “protective effect of a completed pregnancy” is generally undisputed in the scientific community, as is the fact that a woman who has an abortion loses this protective effect and thereby increases her risk of breast cancer relative to what it would have been had she completed the pregnancy.
The substantial body of scientific evidence linking abortion with an increase in risk over and above the loss of this protective effect is much more controverted and politicized, which is presumably why the legislation describes this additional increased risk as a “possibility.”
Nevertheless, abortion providers have a legal duty to inform women considering abortion about this possibility and the undisputed “protective effect of a completed pregnancy.” By failing to do so they are subject to liability for medical malpractice.
According to the National Cancer Institute, “[t]he older a woman is when she has her first child, the greater her chance of breast cancer,” and “[w]omen who never had children are at an increased risk of breast cancer.” And according to Wikipedia:
Lower age of first childbirth, compared to the average age of 24,[32] having more children (about 7% lowered risk per child), and breastfeeding (4.3% per breastfeeding year, with an average relative risk around 0.7[33][34]) have all been correlated to lowered breast cancer risk in large studies.[35] Women who give birth and breast-feed by the age of 20 may have even greater protection.[36] In contrast, for instance, having the first live birth after age 30 doubles the risk compared to having first live birth at age less than 25. Never having children triples the risk.[37]
This “protective effect of a completed pregnancy” occurs only after about 32 weeks gestation, and is abrogated by an induced abortion. (Follow the link for a comprehensive review of the biological and epidemiological evidence, as well as the sordid political history, of the abortion – breast cancer connection.)
In selecting the title of this post I had particularly in mind the pro bono public interest litigation in North Dakota mentioned in my last post, the challenge I posed to abortion providers in this response to a comment on that post, and the following comment on my letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star:
As a healthcare professional I am disgusted by the threat of an ambulance chaser (John A. Kindley) that I will be sued for malpractice if I refuse to give erroneous medical information to a patient. There is absolutely NO CREDIBLE DATA OR STUDIES to link abortion with breast cancer. You want legislation to limit abortion to less than 20 weeks? Ok, I can support that. But asking me to lie to a patient, NO!! And as a woman I have to say that if you have a penis you have absolutely no right whatsoever to even be in this debate! Have you ever been pregnant? Have you ever given birth? You have no concept at all of what you are attempting to speak about so please refrain from doing so.
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