October is breast cancer awareness month. I’m all for fighting breast cancer. My mother, aunt, and cousin all died from breast cancer. I don’t want to. This summer, my niece discovered she has breast cancer. I want her to grow beautifully old with grandchildren.
For all these reasons, I’m grateful for cancer research and physicians with resolve to battle the disease. But, I’m also confused.
Why would organizations known for fighting breast cancer team up with organizations that abort babies and put women at higher risk of breast cancer?
Susan G. Komen is a successful organization that raises awareness of breast cancer as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars for research and hope of finding a cure. But, Susan G. Komen also gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood (PP). PP is the world’s largest provider of abortions.
Dr. Joel Brind is a Professor of Human Biology and Endocrinology at Baruch College, the City University of New York and president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute in Poughkeepsie, NY. He has been conducting research on diseases related to reproductive steroid hormones since 1972. Dr. Brind links the long history of peer reviewed medical research establishing the breast cancer and abortion link. Google or Bing Joel Brind. Watch one of his YouTube videos. Or, google or Bing David Reardon at the Elliot Institute. You can order the brochure, “Breast Cancer: Risks and Choices” from Heritage House www.hh76.com
How does abortion ultimately cause breast cancer? Almost all of the risk factors which are known to increase the risk of breast cancer are associated with some kind of excess exposure to the main female sex steroid hormone, estrogen. The biggest surge of estrogen occurs in the first tirmester of pregnancy. Estrogen goes sky high. That’s okay because although it stimulates the growth of the breasts, toward the end of the pregnancy other hormones kick in that make the breast tissue mature, which also kill off cells that are not needed. Once the mature cells are ready to produce milk, they aren’t in a growing mode. They are less likely to be subject to the mutogenic or initiating effects of carcinogens (the substances that produce cancer). The carcinogens will affect cells which basically can grow.
If a woman has an abortion during the first 32 weeks of pregnancy, she gets all of these growth-promoting effects on the tissues because of the big surge of estrogen. Without the differentiating and maturing effects of the later hormones, the net result is the opposite of what we would find in a full-term pregancy. It’s know that a full-term pregnancy early in a woman’s reproductive life is protective against breast cancer. But an early abortion does not offer that protection and, instead, works the other way and increases the risk. The extra estrogen ultimately causes abnormal cells to grow into full blown cancer.
A miscarriage, on the other hand, is a natural termination — much different from an induced abortion. Most pregnancies that end in miscarriage don’t produce the same high levels of estrogen as are produced by a normal pregnancy. (Read more in “Breast Cancer: Risks and Choices”)
RU 486, the chemical abortion, does nothing to neutralize the effects of pregnancy hormones up until the time of the abortion; therefore, it will have the same effect on future breast cancer risk as surgical abortion.
I hope that women who have had or are considering an abortion will do some research and discover very serious risks to their health.
In the meantime, I’m left wondering. Why don’t the organizations that fight breast cancer speak up about the risks of abortion? Why would an organization like Susan G. Komen want to donate large amounts of money to Planned Parenthood? Why would an organization that wants to save the lives of women not be troubled about donating to a business that ends the lives of babies and puts the mothers of those babies at serious risk of breast cancer?
It doesn’t make any sense. None at all.
(For a 30-minute video entitled “Komen’s Dark Side,” go to www.lifeissues.org/AbortionBreastCancer/komen/index.htm )
Ezerwoman's Blog 
Thank you for this well written explanation of the abortion/breast cancer link. It saddens me to think of the number of men and women who are pro-life, and yet contribute to Susan G. Komen. They do it out of love for the women in their lives who have been touched by breast cancer, I know that. But, we cannot support one cause at the expense of another, especially when that expense is the lives of the unborn.
I too would like to see a cure for breast cancer, as I face a second round with that monster. But, my life does not have any more value than the life of a child in the womb. Please, please share this information, and not only don’t support Susan G. Koman, but let them know why you are not contributing. Even if they recognized the abortion/breast cancer risk, the fact that they give money to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, must disqualify them from the gifts of pro-life Christians.
I’m enjoying your blog, Linda! And Amen, Karen! My prayers are with you.
I would also like to see more honesty regarding breast cancer. Certainly there are victims who acquire the disease through no fault of their own, but it is also a disease of choice. Women choose to have abortions, use abortifacients (the pill, the patch, IUDs, the ring, the shot, etc.), bear only 1 or 2 children very late in their fertility, and choose not to even try breastfeeding. All of these factors increase the risk of breast cancer.
A brief period of infertility and a miscarriage taught me that no woman can choose to conceive or carry a child, but those experiences also taught me to trust His timing and actually believe (not just confess) that children are blessings. The notion that children are burdens is really at the root of much of our problems.
Good thoughts Joy. There are so many factors that can contribute to the likelihood of cancer. Then again, some women (and men) do everything “right” in the medical world and still end up with cancer. Satan has a way of taking what we think we can control and attacking us.
I so agree that the belief that children are a burden and viewing pregnancy as an illness are behind many of the issues in our society today. But, we are all sinful and the consequences of sin can attack any of us. We have to cling to the Gospel, for forgiveness for our bad choices, and healing of our bodies and spirits.
Accepting children when they come – I give you a big amen to that!