Abortion and Breast Cancer
Truth Surfaces Momentarily in British Newspapers

By Joel Brind, Ph.D.

There it was: an one-inch-high, front-page headline in the Sunday, August 13 London Mail, that read "Abortion Could Cause Breast Cancer." A similar story appeared in the Sunday Mirror, and in articles the following day in the Times of London and the Daily Express.

Such breakthroughs in the wall of media silence concerning the connection between induced abortion and breast cancer was expressed even more strongly in Australia's Herald Sun, whose headline read, "Doctors to alert millions: Abortions raise risk of cancer."

What follows is an insider's account of how this "old" story suddenly (finally!) became front-page news in England and the subsequent successful [thus far] counteroffensive effort by the United Kingdom's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).

As reported on page 19 in the May edition of NRL News, RCOG last March released its new "Evidence-based Guideline No. 7: The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion." The actual summary recommendation released March 15, 2000, was that "available evidence on an association between induced abortion and breast cancer is inconclusive."

Yet the RCOG guideline was still useful because it briefly summarized the two most thorough reviews of the literature investigating the link between abortion and breast cancer (ABC). One is the 1997 review by Wingo et al. and the other is "A Comprehensive Review and Meta-analysis," a 1996 paper prepared by myself and several colleagues. (A meta-analysis is a study which pools the results of several studies in order to achieve greater statistical accuracy.) Our paper, in fact, had been published in the British Medical Association's epidemiology journal.

Notably, the "Evidence-based Guideline No. 7" guideline also added the comment that "the Brind paper had no major methodological shortcomings and could not be disregarded." And because the section that summarizes the evidence showing that there is a link includes (between denials) a clear warning, I labeled this " a decent slab of truth in their denial sandwich."

Apparently, however, although the new guideline had been launched with a March 15 RCOG press conference, the English media were unaware of the details of the evidence about the abortion-breast cancer link. This is perhaps because only the summary recommendation--that "Available evidence on an association between induced abortion and breast cancer is inconclusive"--made it onto the RCOG web site.

Whatever the reason, on about August 10, the British media contacted me and also Professor James Drife, vice president of the RCOG. Drife told the Mail on Sunday that although research was "inconclusive," he also said that "one analysis [our meta- analysis] has indicated a possible increase in risk." Drife added, "This study cannot be rubbished or regarded as sub- standard." A back-handed compliment to be sure, but still important.

One could assume that having heard the evidence of the ABC link validated by Dr. Drife, RCOG's spokesman, the RCOG would make sure that women were generally alerted to this preventable danger. Informed consent means that potential patients be apprised of any credible evidence that a surgical procedure they are considering may be linked to any serious complication.

Drife had even implied as much in his comments to the Mail. He said, "The general philosophy is that it's good for people to have access to all the facts."

This was not to be, unfortunately. Even before the papers hit the streets on Sunday morning, Drife and his RCOG colleague Prof. Allan Templeton issued a press release dated August 13.

It read, "The RCOG wishes to reassure women who have had an abortion or who have breast cancer that the research evidence on this question to date is inconclusive" (emphasis in original). Included in the release is a box containing the verbatim statement about abortion and breast cancer from the RCOG guideline. Verbatim, that is, with one major exception: All mention of significant evidence of an abortion-breast cancer link (from our 1996 meta-analysis and the 1997 review by Wingo et al.) had been seamlessly excised. In other words, the "slab of truth" had been removed from the denial sandwich. The reader was left with the conclusion "that induced abortion does not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer later in life."

The August 13 RCOG press release now appears on its web site, under the heading "Statement on abortion and breast cancer." Since the web site never contained the details of the evidence listed in the full, printed guideline, the real full text relating to abortion and breast cancer is not available there.

The RCOG had more work to do. On Monday, August 14, the London tabloid the Guardian hit the streets with the headline: "Anger at paper's abortion claim." The article was generously seasoned with quotes from the RCOG's Templeton. (Templeton is honorary secretary of the RCOG and an abortionist in Scotland, well known as a 'pioneer' in the use of RU 486 for second-trimester chemical abortions.)

Templeton told the Guardian, "To say we have 'agreed there is a link' is completely false." He added, "We probably need to go to the Press Complaints Commission because it is totally inappropriate."

The Mail--a prestigious weekly paper with a circulation in excess of two million--prepared to respond to what was an attack on its credibility. A reporter called me back for an hour-long, follow-up interview, for an even longer article which I was told was to run the following Sunday, August 20.

But the story never ran. Neither the Sunday Mail nor any other major newspaper followed up the story. Whether or not the RCOG went to the Press Complaints Commission I do not know.
What I do know is three-fold. First, the RCOG misrepresented its own public document. Second, for whatever reason, the British media have yet to stand up for the truth. But, third, none of the original newspaper reports has been retracted.

The fight for an unbiased treatment of the clear linkage between induced abortion and breast cancer goes on.

Dr. Brind, professor of Biology and Endocrinology at Baruch College of the City University of NY, is also founder and President of the Breast Cancer Institute in Poughkeepsie, NY, a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity.