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The National Cancer Institute has been bullied by congressional conservatives
into revising its best judgment on whether abortion increases the risk of breast
cancer. Unless the institute can summon the courage to express its true views,
it will be severely damaged. Researchers have long debated whether abortion
increases the risk of breast cancer, possibly by altering hormones and tissue
development in the breast. A fact sheet distributed by the institute last March
noted that studies conducted before the mid-1990s produced inconsistent results
but that subsequent studies generally found no association between abortion and
breast cancer. The American Cancer Society reached the same conclusion. Those
judgments were anathema to anti-abortion groups, which have been trying to scare
women away from abortion by raising the specter of breast cancer. A group of 28
anti-abor tion members of Congress complained to Tommy Thompson, the secretary
of health and human services, that the institute’s formulation was
‘‘scientifically inaccurate and misleading.’’ So in June, the institute removed
the fact sheet from its Web site and later replaced it with a statement that
some studies have found an increased risk of cancer while others have not. That
statement, while technically accurate, is such an egregious distortion of the
evidence that one can only hope it is an interim statement, as some staff
members suggest, not a final surrender. The institute plans to address the issue
at a conference on pregnancy and breast cancer in February. If the experts at
that meeting agree there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, the
institute will have no excuse to suppress the information. It will have to issue
a new fact sheet or admit it can no longer provide objective guidance on matters
that inflame social conservatives.
The National
Cancer Institute has been bullied by congressional conservatives into revising
its best judgment on whether abortion increases the risk of breast cancer.
Unless the institute can summon the courage to express its true views, it will
be severely damaged. Researchers have long debated whether abortion increases
the risk of breast cancer, possibly by altering hormones and tissue development
in the breast. A fact sheet distributed by the institute last March noted that
studies conducted before the mid-1990s produced inconsistent results but that
subsequent studies generally found no association between abortion and breast
cancer. The American Cancer Society reached the same conclusion. Those judgments
were anathema to anti-abortion groups, which have been trying to scare women
away from abortion by raising the specter of breast cancer. A group of 28 anti-abor
tion members of Congress complained to Tommy Thompson, the secretary of health
and human services, that the institute’s formulation was ‘‘scientifically
inaccurate and misleading.’’ So in June, the institute removed the fact sheet
from its Web site and later replaced it with a statement that some studies have
found an increased risk of cancer while others have not. That statement, while
technically accurate, is such an egregious distortion of the evidence that one
can only hope it is an interim statement, as some staff members suggest, not a
final surrender. The institute plans to address the issue at a conference on
pregnancy and breast cancer in February. If the experts at that meeting agree
there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, the institute will have no
excuse to suppress the information. It will have to issue a new fact sheet or
admit it can no longer provide objective guidance on matters that inflame social
conservatives.
The National
Cancer Institute has been bullied by congressional conservatives into revising
its best judgment on whether abortion increases the risk of breast cancer.
Unless the institute can summon the courage to express its true views, it will
be severely damaged. Researchers have long debated whether abortion increases
the risk of breast cancer, possibly by altering hormones and tissue development
in the breast. A fact sheet distributed by the institute last March noted that
studies conducted before the mid-1990s produced inconsistent results but that
subsequent studies generally found no association between abortion and breast
cancer. The American Cancer Society reached the same conclusion. Those judgments
were anathema to anti-abortion groups, which have been trying to scare women
away from abortion by raising the specter of breast cancer. A group of 28 anti-abor
tion members of Congress complained to Tommy Thompson, the secretary of health
and human services, that the institute’s formulation was ‘‘scientifically
inaccurate and misleading.’’ So in June, the institute removed the fact sheet
from its Web site and later replaced it with a statement that some studies have
found an increased risk of cancer while others have not. That statement, while
technically accurate, is such an egregious distortion of the evidence that one
can only hope it is an interim statement, as some staff members suggest, not a
final surrender. The institute plans to address the issue at a conference on
pregnancy and breast cancer in February. If the experts at that meeting agree
there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, the institute will have no
excuse to suppress the information. It will have to issue a new fact sheet or
admit it can no longer provide objective guidance on matters that inflame social
conservatives.