Breast Cancer and Abortions

Abortion for health reasons has always been a gray area to many but it seems it is a little grayer.

Peter Carroll of London's Pension and Population Research Institute reports in "The Breast Cancer Epidemic: Modeling and Forecasts Based on Abortion and Other Risk Factors" that countries with high abortion rates, such as England and Wales, can expect a substantial increase in the number of cases of breast cancer
over the next few decades.

This isn’t the first study to point to this but they always seem to be swept under the rug.

At the time, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called the study "mischief making" whose only purpose was to cause anxiety. "This report should not influence women in making decisions about abortion at difficult times in their life," the organization said.

In other words, right now is more important then later on. The need to have abortion on demand is more important to some people then the child’s life or apparently the mother’s.

The NCI has their own take on this.

The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.

So there it is, two sides with different studies to back up their view. One side wants to continue abortion as a healthy choice and the other wants to caution the use of abortion, but what about a different look.

One study shows pregnancy may even have a good effect on the immune system, one that could prevent recurrences of breast cancer, said Dr. Mirhashemi. According to this theory, fetal antigen cells during pregnancy can evoke a strong memory response from the immune system (created by previous exposure to breast cancer cells), and will keep any small cancers in check. However,Dr. Mirhashemi says, "This is a very complex theory and only one small study has addressed it. It?s a very interesting fact that fetal antigens share common antigens with breast
cancer cells. It is certainly worthy of further study."

If a full term pregnancy after cancer treatment is beneficial, does logic dictate that a cut short pregnancy would be detrimental (how about several)?