Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja (Dem. SA) thinks that anti-choice pregnancy counselling centres should have to tell women that they never refer for abortions. Jenny Stokes of Salt Shakers thinks this is a silly idea. If the question of abortion arises, counsellors should:

… explain the harm that can result from such a choice - such as medical complications, post-abortion trauma and breast cancer, all of which are medical facts. (Salt Shakers Submission: Inquiry into Transparent Advertising and Notification of Pregnancy Counselling Services Bill 2005, Jun. 2006)

Women regularly abort embryos spontaneously, often without realising that they’ve done so i.e. there is no possibility of establishing a link between such an event and the later development of breast cancer. Unless she is a virgin, how can a woman possibly say that she has ‘never had an abortion’? Furthermore there is no established mechanism for a link. In which case, why do Jenny Stokes and other Religious Right chatterers keep insisting that the alleged link between abortion and breast cancer is a ‘medical fact’?

Google ‘abortion and breast cancer’ and you’ll be struck by the disparity of opinion on this question. Many organisations say that there is a very clear link while other organisations will tell you that there’s no proven link at all, and in some cases that abortion may be associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. Who to believe?

Delve a little deeper and you’ll find that most of the ‘Yes, there is a link’ groups have names like Salt Shakers, Endeavour Forum etc. While most of the ‘No, there’s no good evidence for a link’ groups have titles like the US National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Cancer Council of NSW etc. You’ve got it - the only opinions to which a sensible person would pay the slightest attention are those of medical authorities. The rest are just the wacky views of Religious Right groups and their conservative allies pushing their creaky old anti-abortion barrow.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Evidence doesn’t matter much to groups like Salt Shakers. It’s only admissible if it supports their ‘Bible-based’ views. Once these people think they’re on a good thing, they stick to it. And an entirely unproven link between abortion and breast cancer looks like a very good thing to them.

Filed in: Abortion