The first Sunday in October is a busy day in Canada. Most pro-lifers know it as Life Chain Sunday, but it is also the day that the CIBC sponsors Run for the Cure, an event that raises money for breast cancer research.

This year, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, which organizes and profits from the run, reports on its website that the 160,000 participants raised $17 million for breast cancer research. This is an increase of 20,000 participants and $2 million.

The CBCF, which claims on its website to have the primary objectives of prevention, awareness and encouragement of self responsibility for breast health, is completely silent on the well-documented abortion-breast cancer (or ABC) link. It, along with almost every other mainstream cancer institute, is hiding from the public that 29 out of 38 studies done worldwide have found a significant link between breast cancer and abortion. These studies, going as far back as 1957, have found up to a 150 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer in women who have had abortions. Avoiding abortion is the easiest way a woman can promote breast health and do her best to prevent breast cancer, yet she is not being given this know-ledge.

In an attempt to at least partially alleviate this gap in information, representatives from Campaign Life Coalition Youth, Toronto Right to Life and the National Campus Life Network attended the run this year, as they did last year, to distribute pamphlets to the runners and their supporters.

Using pamphlets produced by the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, the team, comprised of mostly young women, was able to inform over 1,500 people of the conspiracy to keep women in the dark regarding the ABC link.

Most people happily took the pamphlets and several came back for extra copies when they had read the content. However, some abortion supporters took issue with the material. Natalie Hudson, executive director of Toronto Right to Life, was accosted by an angry woman and her male escort. The woman snatched a handful of pamphlets away from Hudson, declaring that she had no right to be present at the run, and her partner physically threatened David Elliot of St. Mike’s Students for Life when he attempted to intervene. Elliot was able to control the situation by calmly explaining that the group’s presence was necessary, as there was no other way to get the information out. The couple left without further incident.

Gillian Long, executive director of CLCY, felt the event was very successful. “Because the pamphlets we gave out this year didn’t have the dreaded ‘a-word’ (abortion) on the front, lots of people took the pamphlets, and weren’t prejudiced against the information they contained, because they didn’t think of it as pro-life literature. Of course, they’re wrong. It is pro-life – pro-fetal life, and pro-women’s life.”

Long added, “Now we can only pray that they will absorb the information and take it into account if they ever consider an abortion.”

The group was tearfully thanked by one older woman who informed them that she had survived a double mastectomy. “Thank you so much for your work,” she said, clutching a CLCY-member’s hand. “Thank you for caring about me and all of these women.”

A similar event took place in Kamloops, B.C., with pro-life students from the University College of the Cariboo distributing pamphlets at their local run.