The idea is simple: During pregnancy, women's bodies produce high levels of estrogen which act as a buffer against cancer later in life. So would an interupted pregnancy or never having become pregnant increase a woman's chances of having breast cancer?

Realizing that if this were the case, miscarriage would have the same affect; however, Christian groups are quick to point out that women should not try to prevent or terminate high-risk pregnancies nor worry about miscarriage because these same medical conditions suddenly do not apply; they only apply to willfully ending a pregnancy.

To reiterate: the same conditions (high estrogen levels) do not apply (according to Christians) if the woman is acting on her own behalf versus if she follows the will of Jehova.

The situation is also simple: Doctors and researchers disagree.

Christian groups have called for a boycott (http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/postage_stamp/index.htm) of cancer research funding after medical and cancer organizations disagreed with and discredited their abortion-breast cancer "research findings." The boycott includes a call to Christians to stop buying the "Fund the Fight, Find the Cure" postage stamp.

American Cancer Society
(http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_ Can_Having_an_Abortion_Cause_or_Contribute_to_Breast_Cancer.asp)

"Linking these 2 topics understandably creates a great deal of emotion, as well as controversy. Research studies, however, have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer.

"Studies have shown that healthy women are less likely to report their histories of induced abortions. In contrast, women with breast cancer are more likely to accurately report their reproductive histories because they are searching their memories for anything that may have contributed to their disease.

"The likelihood that women who have breast cancer will give a more complete account of their abortions than women who do not have breast cancer is called "recall bias," and it can seriously undermine the accuracy of study results."

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National Cancer Institute
(http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/abortion-miscarriage)

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The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
(http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr07-31-03-2.cfm)

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World Health Organization
(http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs240/en/index.html)

"Therefore, results from epidemiological studies are reassuring in that they show no consistent effect of first trimester induced abortion upon a woman’s risk of breast cancer later in life."

"Cancer of the breast is common in developed countries where the lifetime risk ranges from 1 in 12 to 1 in 20 women. Among women living in developing countries the risk is lower but appears to be increasing. Risk factors for breast cancer include high socio-economic status, early menarche, late first birth, late menopause, and a family history of breast cancer."

"Most of the information on whether induced abortion modifies the risk of breast cancer among women comes from epidemiological studies, which are either case-control studies, or historical cohort studies. For information on abortion, all published case-control studies have relied on interviews of cases and controls with the inherent problem of recall bias. This bias occurs because women with breast cancer (cases) tend to truthfully report induced abortion while controls, who often are healthy women, have no "incentive" to provide information about personal and sensitive matters such as induced abortion. Such bias can produce elevated relative risk estimates in case-control studies. As a result, the outcome of such studies has been inconsistent, with some having indicated a small increase in risk, while others have not."

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Center for Reproductive Rights, False Claims of Breast Cancer Risk
http://www.reproductiverights.org/pub_fac_brcancer.html

"Some anti-abortion activists also incorrectly say that young women who choose abortion are at an increased risk for developing breast cancer. These claims are based on evidence suggesting that carrying a pregnancy to term before age 35 may confer a later protective effect against breast cancer. The scientific evidence demonstrates, however, that a young woman who has an abortion is left in the same position as if she had never been pregnant. Claiming that a young woman who has an abortion is at a heightened risk of developing breast cancer is like claiming that a young woman who is abstinent and therefore does not become pregnant is at a heightened risk of developing breast cancer.

"Anti-abortion activists have also engaged in advertising campaigns to spread misinformation about abortion and breast cancer using billboards and subway posters. In a lawsuit involving one of those subway advertisements, a federal judge described a poster as 'misleading' and 'unduly alarming.'"

Beyond the Breast Cancer Myth
(http://www.reproductiverights.org/rfn_00_06.html#cancer)

"It is crucial to note that even the case control studies that showed a statistical relationship between breast cancer and abortion did not necessarily confirm a cause and effect relationship between the two. Dr. Lynn Rosenberg has done several studies on breast cancer and abortion, and explains it this way: 'If someone studied a correlation between the number of computers in use and the risk of breast cancer, there would be a statistical correlation because the rate of breast cancer has been increasing alongside an increasing rate of computer use. But this certainly doesn't mean that computer usage is causing breast cancer.'

"In fact, no study has been able to demonstrate a biological mechanism for how abortion could cause an increase in breast cancer risk. While researchers studying breast cancer will continue to ask questions about abortion, Dr. Rosenberg says that, "as far as most epidemiologists are concerned, it has been a dead end. They're putting their efforts into other areas."

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New England Journal of Medicine
(http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/336/2/8)

"Induced Abortion and the Risk of Breast Cancer
Conclusions Induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer."

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^{Abramson Cancer Center of the Univeristy of Pennsylvania
(https://www.oncolink.org/types/article.cfm?c=69&s=5&ss=40&id=9141)}

^{"Studies have not proven a link between abortion and breast cancer."}

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Do something

Feminist Campus.org
(http://www.feministcampus.org/act/cpc/default.asp)

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If you really want to scare girls
away from having an abortion,
tell them it could turn them into a Crazy Christian.