New (to me) anti-choice meme: Abortion causes breast cancer

[justiceischeap]

Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2012, 02:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Just thought I'd share what I found this morning doing research on other breast cancer organizations to support (if any -- I have strict views on animal testing, as in there shouldn't be any, but this is a separate issue).

Apparently the new anti-choice meme is that if you get an abortion, it increases your risk for breast cancer. This hypothesis has been disproven but, like Jesus hanging out with a baby dinosaur, science doesn't seem to matter to these folks. I saw lots of links slamming the Komen foundation for its continued funding of PP when science says that abortions cause breast cancer. I know from many reports, everything that happened within Komen was politically motivated, whether they want to admit it or not but finding site after site after site purporting the link that doesn't exist explains a lot.

[ck4829]

1. It's not new, but this one is annoying

And they also say that although they think abortion and breast cancer is linked, they also make it clear that their 'research' says there is no link between spontaneous abortion and breast cancer.

It's almost like they're trying to imply every time a woman gets an abortion, God is sitting in front a panel and presses a big red 'cancer' button or something.

[maryellen99]

5. I remember watching a program on abortion clinics

I'm pro choice btw and one of the workers stated that the prominent pro-lifers in their area would regularly bring their daughters in for abortions.

[Brickbat]

2. Nothing new about that one. If they gave a shit about women,

-- oh, wait, sorry. My bad.

[xfundy]

3. They've been spreading that manure for years.

[MoonRiver]

4. And the meme is brought to us by the same deluded fools

who really think the earth was created in 7 days, and global warming is a left wing conspiracy, among other funnies.

[KamaAina]

6. That's about as new as Trump's hairdo

they've been beating that dead horse at least since the early '90s.

[justiceischeap]

7. It's new to me and seems to be tied in heavily

with the Komen foundation. Since Karen Handel is anti-choice, one has to wonder if this ties in. I'd like to see if there's a tie.

[Prophet 451]

8. That's an old one

It's been refuted a hundred times by almost every medical organisation in the world but, with their usual regard for accuracy, they keep pushing it.

[hifiguy]

9. Just like athlete's foot makes your nose fall off.

Lies, lies, and more lies. Willful ignorance or irreparable stupidity. Not that it makes much difference in the end.

[RainDog]

10. Not new. Some Indiana representative was touting this bullshit years ago

John Hostettler, a wart on the ass of humanity, was lying about this back in 2001. (He lost his last election, even after Republicans gerrymandered it to make it possible for Repukes to hold that seat.)

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=9&num=441&printer=1

In early 2003, the National Cancer Institute concluded that it was well established from all available scientific evidence that "induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.

This doesn't stop the anti-woman crowd from lying about this issue, obviously.

[iverglas]

11. yes, it's extremely old ...

It's part of the "second wave" of anti choice activism: not "abortion is murder" (which wasn't getting them anywhere with rational women), but "abortion hurts women". Pro-life is pro-woman, pro-life feminists, blah blah. (The quotation marks around pro-life can be taken as read.)

There may actually be a teeny, tiny grain of truth in the claim. It's possible that the risk of one particular kind of breast cancer, that risk already being negligible statistically, is increased by a fraction of a percentage by a therapeutic abortion. (It has to do with changes in breast cells during pregnancy.) It would be difficult even to measure the increased risk by considering huge cohorts of women.

The risk to any individual woman would still be lower than the risk of being struck by lightning while being run over by a bus.

And of course it's nowhere near the level of any of the many and various risks associated with full-term pregnancy and delivery, which a woman denied an abortion would be compelled to assume.