Religion, Science

Lying For Jesus: The Abortion/Breast Cancer Link

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

For those who oppose abortion no tactic is too sleazy. The scare tactic of stopping abortion by linking it with breast cancer was manna from heaven. The visceral fear of breast cancer would present the faithful with a weapon to be wielded with no regard for the facts. The fact that the scientific evidence shows no link between abortion and breast cancer fazed them not.

The recent Komen/Planned Parenthood publicity and Komen’s ties to this woo, has reanimated this long-dead controversy.

The Komen tie-in is via Jane Abraham, a member of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Advocacy Alliance board of directors. Abraham is also on the board of directors of The Nurturing Network, an organization founded and chaired by Mary Cunningham Agee. It was Agee who, in 1999, wrote in a Culture of Life Foundation newsletter that “the undeniable link between breast cancer and abortion is only the ‘tip of an iceberg’ of damage that medical science is now able to reveal about this procedure.”

Abraham is also founder and General Chairman of the Susan B. Anthony List. On its website, the SBA List touts its Komen connection while claiming:

There are also studies that link abortion to breast cancer- which is precisely what SGK is supposed to be fighting against.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a lie.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a report, Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk, that found:

More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found:

Breast cancer: induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.

The American Cancer Society studied the link and reported the results:

  • Induced abortion is not linked to an increase in breast cancer risk.
  • Spontaneous abortion is not linked to an increase in breast cancer risk.

These scientific results are known to the anti-abortion cadre, and they’d rather lie to women.

H/T: Jodi Jacobson, Catholics For Choice (pdf).

254 thoughts on “Lying For Jesus: The Abortion/Breast Cancer Link”

  2. More than statistics I rely on Nature, to tell me what is happening.
    Plants, insects, and animals are moving north. Takes a few years, but they do.
    Figure it out.

  4. Nal,
    Just looked at your avatar. Can’t find a thing wrong with it. She(?) adorable.
    But maybe her taste in upholstery textile might be questioned.

  6. Internal Heartland Institute Email Blasts “Lamestream Media” for Climate Leak
    —By Kate Sheppard
    | Thu Feb. 16, 2012
    http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/02/heartland-institute-documents-climate

    Excerpt:
    It’s been an interesting few days in the climate denial world. On Tuesday, DeSmogBlog and Think Progress posted what they described as internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a fossil-fuel-funded right-wing think-tank that spends much of its time denying climate change. The posted documents include plans for disseminating climate change disinformation to kids and to provide funding for science deniers.

    Heartland responded on Wednesday, claiming that some of the documents are real, but others are a “total fake,” and still others are being reviewed. The group wrote in a press release:

    The stolen documents were obtained by an unknown person who fraudulently assumed the identity of a Heartland board member and persuaded a staff member here to “re-send” board materials to a new email address. Identity theft and computer fraud are criminal offenses subject to imprisonment. We intend to find this person and see him or her put in prison for these crimes.

    It’s worth noting that Heartland didn’t seem to mind when emails between climate scientists that were stolen from a server, made public, and lied about on the internet—either the first or second time it happened. It’s only now that that type of behavior is “just despicable,” a “violation of journalistic ethics,” and a criminal offense.

    Now Heartland is using the incident to fundraise, according to an email to donors obtained by Mother Jones on Wednesday night. The email complains that “scores of bloggers and left-wing activists and their pets in the lamestream media” are posting and quoting the documents, and says that what New York Times’ Andy Revkin did—i.e. publishing some of the documents—”was not only unethical, it was also probably illegal.” It also asks for donations to the organization’s legal defense fund to fight “false and defamatory” stories. And it apologizes to funders whose names were made public by the incident: “We promise anonymity to many of our donors because nobody wants the risk of nutty environmentalists or Occupy Wall Street goons harassing them. We know that privacy is important to you.”

    1. Elaine,
      Thanks for your post.
      “left-wing activists and their pets”

      I’ve always wanted to be the pet of a left-wing activist! Where do I sign?

  8. Major embarrassment for Joe Romm, and DeSmog and their unthinking fans.

    In the hours after the ClimateGate emails were released, skeptics asked about their authenticity (as we are want to do). In the hours after the Heartland Documents (including at least one complete fake) were released, the commentators on the other side did not even ask (just as they uncritically accept any weak report in favour of their pet theory).

    They leapt to their defamatory conclusions in a smear-fest. At least one person out there has probably committed a criminal act. The rest are guilty of small brained unskeptical blind hatred, defamation, and ignorance. And will any of them apologize? I’ll be shocked if even one has the decency or manners.

    We should not allow them to forget it. DeSmog=DeSmear. They are a group happy to promote lies with no compunction. They are not interested in the truth, just in the PR. Oh the fool journalists who think the paid hacks at DeSmog ever had anything to say on science that was not biased or deceitful. Richard Littlemore, where is your apology? Instead, knowing the document is

    faked, he continues to promote it. So does Brad Johnson, and Joe Romm.

    http://joannenova.com.au/2012/02/update-heartland-documents-stolen-and-key-one-is-fake-no-insider-leak/

  9. C.Everett Kook 1, February 15, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science

    Kook is as Kook does

    PRESS RELEASE 11:45 AM – source http://heartland.org/press-releases/2012/02/15/heartland-institute-responds-stolen-and-fake-documents

    One document, titled “Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy,” is a total fake apparently intended to defame and discredit The Heartland Institute. It was not written by anyone associated with The Heartland Institute. It does not express Heartland’s goals, plans, or tactics. It contains several obvious and gross misstatements of fact.

  10. This is funny

    With global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions stalled, the United States and five other countries are starting a new program to cut other pollutants — including methane, soot and hydrofluorocarbons — that contribute to global warming.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-will-lead-new-effort-to-cut-global-warming-from-methane-soot/2012/02/15/gIQAoYtUGR_story.html

    Lets see we cant get everyone on board to control a trace gas in the atmosphere so lets target another trace gas that doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long.

    Because of that……………..

    “The new program, will not set targets for reductions in pollutants. Rather, it will fund education projects and joint public-private efforts to reduce emissions, said three people briefed on the announcement. They said the new program is likely to encourage nations to reduce diesel exhaust, stem the burning of agricultural waste, and capture methane from landfills, coal mines and natural gas wells, among other policies.”

    Stupid is as stupid does.

    Methane makes up close to one part per million in the atmosphere, and has little effect on the radiative balance of the atmosphere. Water vapour has thousands of times more effect than methane.

  12. Happy Birthday B I L

    At the Maldives’ National Museum, smashed Buddhist statues are testament to the rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in a country famous as a laid-back holiday destination.

    On Tuesday, as protesters backed by mutinous police toppled president Mohamed Nasheed, a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artefacts from the nation’s pre-Islamic era.

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gpQRnwpootZot3dABRpS168QzLbg?docId=CNG.b7b84d73ae0e2b3179e9deb594bd393e.481

    1. Never seen this shot. Speculations of a nightcourse attendee.
      Bisymetrical jets? The two “flower blossoms”? Irradiated solar winds outerst? Composite image? IR? UV? X-ray? False colors?

      Don’t bother asking. I’ll check it out.
      Thanks

  16. CEJ
    Buddha’s birthday in Japan is on April 8th.
    We celebrated it once at the world’s largest wooden structure, a Buddha temple, in Nara, south of Kyota. Recommended.

    Or did we misunerstand?
    Still recommended. Seeing a modern city with a species of deer running loose was special.

  17. Hi Gene,

    So Galileo’s birthday was February 15 a date shared by another good man; I’m hoping Buddha is laughing and am wishing him a very Happy Birthday!

  18. Bron,

    You’ve demonstrated time and again that you don’t know what political science terms actually mean – making up their meaning is your signature move – and your grasp of actual science beyond the basics required for engineering is tenuous at best. AGW is both science and the scientific consensus whether you like it or not.

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