This should be a nice, pleasant, non-controversial topic for us all to enjoy!

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2594499/posts

Microbiologist finds link between women who have abortions, and women who wind up with breast cancer.

http://gerardnadal.com/

The whole article seems to imply an underlying causality that abortions cause breast cancer.

The more intelligent reading is that breast cancer "could" be caused by increased estrogen during conception, followed by the lack of (what should naturally follow) lactogen.  Body gets messed up and is succeptable to cancer.  Also, some take umbrage to the possible assertion that breast cancer = abortioner.  That if you have/had breast cancer, you've had an abortion.

Biased, certainly.  But interesting concept.

I'm sure it will have Endocrinologists all over the country examining the idea.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

just another unforeseen consequence if true

[charby]

What about miscarriages?

Correlation does not mean causation.

[RevDisk]

Yea, I'll wait for some more studies to be done.  Just about everything these days has been linked to cancer.

[BridgeRunner]

There are biological upsides and downsides to virtually every life choice.  Pregnancy/birth/lactation are major events and therefore have complex and far-reaching effects, positive and negative.  I don't see anything new here. 

[RocketMan]

Just as long as some bright individual does not link APS to cancer.

[Hawkmoon]

I first heard this postulated at least 20 years ago. In the intervening twenty+ years I have not seen anything to make it any more than a theory looking for validation. (Not that I spent a lot of time looking for it.)

If you look hard enough, I'm certain one could assemble sufficient "data" to postulate that women who have abortions are subject to being killed in automobile accidents.

[seeker_two]

Just as long as some bright individual does not link APS to cancer.

As long as fistful is a member, there's always a strong chance....

[Perd Hapley]

The claim that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer has been out there for a while. (I have no idea whether it's true.)

[MicroBalrog]

I don't see how this does anything to affect the abortion debate either way.

If you believe - as some people do - that  foetuses are not human and that it is all right to abort them because they are not human beings, it wouldn't matter that it increases the risk of cancer. It would then be a woman's right to decide if she wants to risk cancer or not.

If you believe - as yet others do - that foetuses are human and that it is still all right to abort them, then it wouldn't matter, too - and for the same reason.

OTOH, if you believed that abortion is murder and should not be permitted, it would not matter if it causes cancer. Murder is wrong, whether it does the the murderer harm or not.

The problem with abortion is not that is healthy or not. The problem is that it is an issue that is held by at least one side of the debate to concern two entities, a mother and her child.

[Perd Hapley]

Strictly speaking you're correct, but you don't account for human nature.

If, as some allege, the abortion-cancer link is being hidden because not PC, it would feed into the argument about which side really cares about women.  You're right that the abortion issue hinges on whether the embryo has a right to live, but public policy debates are more often won by making your side look good, the other side look bad. Persuade enough people with emotion, and "logic" and "facts" can always be found to support the position later.

[gunsmith]

And always remember, the longer you live,
The sooner you bloody will die!

old Irish tune