Mother Jones Magazine is not usually on my must read list but a colleague gave me the March/April issue which contains a surprisingly fair article on abortion and breast cancer.

Writer Michael Castleman concludes that there is enough evidence in studies to date to show a connection. He does not demand an end to abortion, but he does ask for some informed counseling and decision-making. “Pro-choice groups should not fall into the trap of defending abortion as absolutely safe. It may not be. Women should have access to all information that affects their health- and the right to choose what to do,” he says.

In his book, The Truth about Breast Cancer, Claire Hoy calls the abortion/breast cancer connection “the risk factor that dares no speak its name.” He also discusses the studies showing a link, which may explain why feminist breast-cancer activists do not give his excellent book. This is evidence they want to bury, along with the victims.

Holy reports that Ottawa doctor Libuse Gilka presented a paper to the Health and Welfare Committee on the Status of Women in Canada in 1992, “The Women’s Right to Know,” on the connection. The Committee’s final report, says How, does not even mention it.

How tells also of the March 1994 visit to Ottawa of Dr. John C. Wilke, president of the international Right to Life Federation. He gave a public speech, spoke to politicians, and held a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Only tow reporters showed up, Hoy reports, “in stark contrast to the numbers attending a news conference held two days earlier by a Canadian company seeking more federal funds to help develop an AIDS drug.”

Even more recently, on March 21 during Question Period in the House of Commons, MP Tom Wappel asked Health Minister Diane Marleau to investigate the abortion/breast cancer link.

“Credible scientific evidence and numerous studies show a possible link between abortion of a first pregnancy and breast cancer,” said Mr. Wappel. “Could the minister assure Canadians that the possible link will be thoroughly investigated? Will the minister tell the House what steps she is taking to ensure the potential risk factor is explained to all Canadian women?”

Minister Marleau’s response was feeble, showing she’s either totally uninformed or extremely biased. “Studies to date have not provided evidence of a link between breast cancer and abortion,” she said.

She is completely wrong. Studies to date have shown a link. This deserves to be studied further, especially with the abortion figures at over 100,000 a year. No single factor has yet been isolated as the primary cause of breast cancer. Women with a history of the disease among close family, early puberty, late childbearing and early exposure to radiation are known as having a higher risk, but at least 70 per cent of those developing breast cancer do not fit this profile.

The facts are brutal. Approximately 5,500 women will die from the disease this year. The April 1995 of Canadian Living states: “Canadian women have the second-highest rate of breast cancer in the world. Thirty years ago, the lifetime risk was one in 22, today it is one in nine. Of those diagnosed, one in three dies at a rate of 14 a day. And 100,000 have the disease and don’t even know it yet. How long can we hide from these facts?” Yet even this comprehensive, well-written article, hides the facts. Not one sentence even hints at the abortion link.

How despicable it is that women have become so wrapped up in protecting their so-called “right to choose” that they refuse to look at yet more damning evidence against abortion and make every attempt to ensure that pregnant women are denied the right to information that no only save their baby’s life but also theirs.

And they all insist that pro-lifers are anti-women.