Revealing Abortion-Breast Cancer Link Is Aim of Suit Against Planned Parenthood

    SAN DIEGO, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Three California women are suing
 Planned Parenthood to force the nation's largest provider of abortions to
 reveal scientific evidence of a substantial link between induced abortion and
 increased risk of breast cancer, it was announced today by the Thomas More Law
 Center, a national, not-for-profit public-interest law firm.
     The women, Agnes Bernardo of Chula Vista, Pamela Colip of Loma Linda, and
 Sandra Duffy-Hawkins of Sacramento, filed suit this morning in the San Diego
 branch of the state superior court against Planned Parenthood of San Diego and
 Riverside Counties, which operates an abortion clinic in San Diego, as well as
 Planned Parenthood Federation of America (P.P.F.A.), headquartered in New York
 City.  The plaintiffs are represented in the action by the Ann Arbor-based
 Thomas More Law Center.  Stuart Fagan is serving as local legal counsel.
     Patrick Gillen, the Thomas More Law Center's lead attorney in the case,
 explained that the complaint alleges that both P.P.F.A. and its San Diego
 affiliate consistently mislead women about the safety of abortion by obscuring
 evidence that induced abortion causes breast cancer.  The plaintiffs are
 seeking no monetary damages.  Rather, they want the court to compel Planned
 Parenthood to inform women that abortion poses a significant health risk in
 the form of increased vulnerability to breast cancer, the leading cause of
 death among middle-age women in America.
     "Planned Parenthood advocates a woman's right to choose," Gillen said.
 "Our clients want all women to have free access to the truthful and accurate
 information they need to make an informed choice."
     The complaint filed today notes that Planned Parenthood touts the safety
 of abortion both in its printed materials and on its websites, claiming that
 childbirth "carries seven times more risk" than a surgical abortive procedure.
 But the complaint points out that the American Medical Association considers
 that any death subsequent to an abortion is related to the procedure if it
 results from "a direct complication of an abortion, an indirect complication
 caused by the chain of events initiated by the abortion, or the aggravation of
 a preexisting condition."
     "Planned Parenthood is trying to focus the attention of women only on
 surgical errors and other immediate complications of the procedure itself,
 which grossly understates the risk," Gillen said.  "They dismiss the research
 that shows a connection between abortion and breast cancer which can increase
 the health risks associated with abortion by 30 percent."
     Dr. Joel Brind, an endocrinologist at Baruch College of the City
 University of New York, who has analyzed the research concerning an abortion-
 breast cancer link, noted that a correlation between breast cancer and induced
 abortion was observed as long ago as a 1957 study conducted in Japan.  In the
 years since, a body of evidence has accumulated from around the world, lending
 credence to the abortion-breast cancer connection.
     "Out of 37 independently published studies, 28 show a causal connection,"
 Brind said.  "And of those, 17 provide positive associations that reach
 statistical significance suggesting a 95-percent certainty that this
 association is not due to chance.  That is scientific evidence which simply
 cannot be ignored."
     Brind noted that research suggests the problem becomes more acute the
 earlier in life a women has an abortion.  "The younger a woman is at the time
 of her first pregnancy, the greater the protection she will have if she
 carries her baby to term," he said.  "Correspondingly, the younger she is when
 she has an abortion, the more prone to cancer she will likely be.
     The three plaintiffs have brought their suit on behalf of the people of
 California, as permitted by California law.  Agnes Bernardo explained that she
 and her co-plaintiffs feel a high degree of personal motivation in this
 effort.  "I have experienced abortion, and I have been treated for a non-
 malignant tumor," Bernardo said.  "I am very concerned about developing breast
 cancer as are most women.  I strongly believe women should receive complete
 information about the studies linking induced abortion and breast cancer
 before making the decision to have an abortion."
     Pamela Colip noted that she had an abortion some 30 years ago, which
 precipitated a premature birth in a subsequent pregnancy.  "I was terribly
 disturbed when I learned about the abundance of scientific medical evidence
 showing that women who have had an induced abortion have a much greater risk
 of developing breast cancer," Colip said.  "My abortion was performed some
 thirty years ago and I remember it as though it were yesterday.  Besides the
 emotional and physical pain, and the tremendous health risks to future
 pregnancies, now there is the added risk of this devastating cancer.  I
 believe that you can never have too much information.  I believe that every
 woman deserves the respect to be fully informed about all the consequences
 surrounding such a procedure as this one.  I had no such information about the
 negative consequences, I want to help make sure that others do."
     Saundra Duffy-Hawkins explained that, while she has never had an abortion,
 she has been treated for cancer twice, and her mother died of cancer.  "We all
 know first-hand what it means to go through these experiences," she said.  "I
 want to do what I can to protect others from tragedies that can be avoided
 simply by having truthful information available.  I believe that women need to
 understand the real risks they face before making choices that can destroy
 lives."
     John Kindley, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center, has published
 an article on legal liability arising from failure to disclose the abortion-
 breast cancer link.  Kindley noted some of the ways in which Planned
 Parenthood is alleged to have misled women about the health risks of abortion.
     "It's their practice to make claims about the safety of abortion based on
 very incomplete data," Kindley said.  "At the same time, they attempt to
 discredit the very real scientific work which has been done showing an
 abortion-breast cancer link.  For instance, they cite five studies that say
 the connection is unclear, while ignoring the overwhelming preponderance of
 the scientific evidence to the contrary.  Then they assure their clients that
 the case for a connection is unproven.  This is not only bad science, it's
 disingenuous to the point of being unethical."
     Brind explained the physical process which the studies indicate causes the
 increased risk.
     "In the early stages of pregnancy, there is a dramatic increase in the
 level of estrogen, the female sex hormone," Brind said.  "This estrogen surge
 causes an increase in the number of breast cells in preparation for nursing,
 which is why a pregnant woman's breasts tend to swell.  In the last eight
 weeks of a full-term pregnancy, other hormones cause the increased tissue to
 stabilize into milk-producing cells.  But at the early stage of rapid
 development, breast cells are in an undifferentiated state and highly
 vulnerable to mutations that can cause cancer."
     Abortion interrupts the natural process of preparing a woman's body to
 bear and nurse a child, Brind observed, cutting off the final part of the
 sequence that provides breast tissue with a significant measure of protection
 against cancer.
 
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SOURCE  Thomas More Law Center