Abortion and Breast Cancer: Truth loses first round in North Dakota.

Having originally been set for September 11, 2001, the trial of Amy Jo Kjelsrud v. Red River Women?s Clinic took place the last week of March (see April NRL News, page 30). At issue was the abortion clinic?s advertising brochure--typically distributed to prospective clients by referring physicians--that severely minimized when it did not dismiss outright the possibility of an abortion-breast cancer link (ABC link).

Over most of the three and a half day trial experts (including myself) presented extensive testimony on the science that underlies the link. So how could it be that before the week was out, Cass County District Court Judge Michael McGuire ruled that the clinic?s brochure was ?not false or misleading in any way??

A large part of the answer is that the clinic got big-time help from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), including an extremely timely new fact sheet issued just before the trial began.

The NCI is the huge federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services which funds most of the cancer research in the United States. The agency also spends a fair amount of its budget on the publication of information on cancer risks. It publishes a number of ?cancer facts? fact sheets on its Internet web site, including one on the ABC link.

While the NCI?s fact sheet has undergone some changes since it first appeared in 1996, it has been consistent in misrepresenting the scientific literature on the subject, concluding that evidence for the link was equivocal at best. In fact, not only does the ABC link show up statistically in most studies, but it also makes biological sense as well.

The first two trimesters of a normal pregnancy expose a woman?s breasts to huge amounts of estrogen, which makes breast cells multiply. Cells, previously dormant, rapidly grow into a system of branching ducts and gland cells capable of producing milk. Once this growth, change, and maturation is completed, the chance of developing cancer is much less. However, if pregnancy isn?t completed, the immature cells are still capable of being stimulated to grow - - and therefore have much more potential to become cancerous.

Getting back to the fact sheet, the pressure of congressional oversight had forced the NCI to retract its most egregious misstatements. One flagrant falsehood was,? There is no evidence of a direct relationship between breast cancer and either induced or spontaneous abortion.? [emphasis added]