Pro-life, anti-cancer. (Making a Difference).(Brita Stream,pro-life beauty contestant from Oregon)(Brief Article)

Brita Stream of Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Oregon State University in June with a degree in health development and family sciences. She has long been an articulate advocate for women's health and the unborn via efforts to raise public awareness about the link between abortion and breast cancer.

In a letter published in the OSU student newspaper The Daily Barometer on February 12th, for instance, Miss Stream responded to an earlier missive from a student who claimed that "there is zero medical proof that abortions cause breast cancer" and that "any studies that say so have not been published in legitimate, peer-reviewed medical journals, but rather appear on biased Web sites ... that distort and fabricate information in an unethical attempt to scare and guilt people into being anti-choice."

To the contrary, Miss Stream pointed out, "In 1994, Dr. Janet Daling and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published their findings in the National Cancer Institute's own journal. They stated that there is a 50 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer, before age 45, among women who had one or more induced abortions. Furthermore, there is an 80 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who had any abortions who also have a family history of breast cancer."

She also briefly summarized the physiological aspects of the problem, asserting: "Pregnancy not only prepares a baby for birth, but it also prepares the mother's breasts for the role of feeding the baby. Almost immediately after conception, a mother's ovaries begin secreting increasing quantities ...