You’d think by now there would be widespread knowledge of the link between abortion and breast cancer. There are at least 28 independent studies, going as far back as 1957, that have linked breast cancer to abortion . Yet, few seem to know about it.
Denise Mountenay, a speaker and author, had three abortions in her younger years. Long after she had the abortions, she realized what she had done and became a Christian.
Earlier this year, Mountenay went in for a mammogram and doctors found a lump in her breast. She prayed, hoping the tumour found in her breast would be benign. It was. She was one of the lucky ones.
Mountenay is the author of the successful book Forgiven of Murder, an autobiography that includes the emotional retelling of her abortion experiences. She was awake during one of the those abortions and was disgusted at what went on in the abortuary. Mountenay said she knows for sure that her book has saved at least three women from having abortions. “When a woman eventually comes to the realization of what she’s done, it’s very, very traumatic, because it is so unnatural for a woman to have her own children killed,” Mountenay told The Interim.
More recently, Mountenay has been on a crusade to have the medical community acknowledge the link between abortion and breast cancer and to make women aware of the link.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women aged 35-55 worldwide and the rate is on the rise in developed nations. Canada, the U.S., Australia and some European countries have the highest rates of breast cancer per capita, and these nations also happen to have some of the highest abortion rates. In Canada, over 18,400 new cases of breast cancer are reported annually, breaking down to about one new case every 30 minutes. Of those diagnosed with the killer disease, 5,600 die each year.
“Breast cancer is definitely linked to abortion. Common sense will tell you there’s a link and we have 28 studies linking breast cancer to abortion.” said Mountenay.
But it is more than a statistical coincidence – there is science, too. During a healthy pregnancy, over 2,000 times the normal rate of estrogen is pumped in naturally to the breast and later becomes milk-producing cells. However, when a woman has an induced abortion, those cells are not shut off and can, and often do, develop into cancerous cells years down the road.
So why aren’t people aware of the link? “The abortion industry, and even the cancer society, are just rampant with feminists who are biased, of course, on the abortion issue. They don’t want to say anything negative about the “A” word,” explained Mountenay.
The National Cancer Society commissioned Dr. Janet Dailing, an abortion supporter, and her colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre to determine if induced abortion raises breast cancer risk. The study found that, “among women who had been pregnant at least once, the risk of breast cancer in those who had experienced an induced abortion was 50 per cent higher than among other women.”
Dailing also identified three high-risk groups susceptible to breast cancer. The first is women under the age of 18 or over the age of 29 who obtained an induced abortion. They have more than a two-fold increase in risk. The second group is women with a family history of breast cancer and had an abortion. They were found to have statistically significant risk increases of 80 per cent. The third grouping is teenagers with a family breast cancer history who had an abortion before the age of 18. They were found to have an incalculably high risk.
Yet the NCS has yet to act on this information. This vital and ultimately lifesaving information has been kept from women for so long now. But that may be beginning to change.
While there have long been people like Dr. Joel Brind at pro-life conferences addressing the issue – Mountenay herself will be speaking about “the ABC link,” as it is known within pro-life circles, at the Saskatchewan Pro-life Conference in Yorkton Oct. 18-19 – pro-lifers are trying to get the message out to the public.
Mountenay attended the World Conference on Breast Cancer in Victoria, B.C. in June, where not one speaker came out and said that breast cancer is linked to abortion. According to Mountenay, one speaker implied the link without using the term abortion, and as a result, conference organizers and some participants were mad at her.
However, Mountenay, who held a large placard advertising the ABC link, reported talking to several women who couldn’t thank her enough for warning them of one of the major causes of breast cancer. She also spoke with four women who had the disease, and of those, Mountenay said “three of them had it (an abortion) – a coincidence? I don’t think so.”
Several years ago, when Dr. Brind addressed the World Breast Cancer Conference in Kingston, tapes of every presentation were later available except his. Organizers claimed technical problems were at fault.
Mountenay is hopeful that women will begin to know the truth about abortion and its link to breast cancer. “We are told women have ‘choice.’ Apparently they can choose breast cancer,” she said sardonically. At the very least, she would like to see abortionists mandated to inform women of the link between abortion and breast cancer.
She also sees a role for the media. She would like one of the documentary television programs to do a show on the link: “60 Minutes would be nice.”
And women themselves have a role to play. “I would like to informally put out a call for women who’ve had abortions and subsequently developed breast cancer.” The importance of this, Mountenay said, was to begin a class-action suit against abortionists for failing to warn women of the risks that come with an abortion.
