WASHINGTON — While more than a dozen state legislatures debate bills on informed consent for women considering abortion, the Associated Press has run an article titled, “Women Wrongly Warned Cancer, Abortion Tied.” The AP considered it such a certainty that the information was wrong, they needed to tell readers twice with a subtitle, “Some Women Considering Abortion Are Wrongly Told It Could Hike Breast Cancer Risk.” The article presents a textbook example of a biased media creating “news” to influence the public when life issues are before legislatures.
The Associated Press’ Laura Meckler claims the ability to single-handedly resolve the dispute saying, “…scientific reviews have concluded there is no such risk.” However, the review she quotes, The Lancet, has come to no such conclusion having run a number of studies over the last few years showing differing results. While the scientific community continues the debate, the Associated Press has succeeded in drawing media attention while not reporting any solid news.
The accusation that scientifically false information is given to women to frighten them out of having an abortion has become the standard technique of abortion propagandists. Pro-life advocates however, are more circumspect by simply saying that women must have all available information.
Gillian Long, Research Director for Canada's Campaign Life Coalition says, “Studies are refuting each other and at the very least we have to show both pieces of information and let people decide for themselves. That's what 'informed consent' means, doesn't it? Why, if there is even a possibility of an increased risk, are these people so determined to keep women in the dark?”
Meckler writes that The Lancet, “came to the same conclusion,” that there is no link, without mentioning that The Lancet, being a scientific journal does not come to conclusions, but merely publishes the studies. Meckler fails to mention studies published in The Lancet and other journals showing both results or the fact that the studies showing a link far outnumber the studies denying a link.
Far from setting the debate at rest, Meckler's one-sided coverage simply adds another well-known defender of abortion to the list of those attempting to deny a link between abortion and breast cancer for political reasons.
Gillian Long said, “There's more to consider than the studies showing a link. There's common sense. It is acknowledged by everyone that increased exposure to estrogen increases your risk of cancer. When you interrupt a pregnancy your body is flooded with estrogen. Are they trying to say that abortion is different? That women are protected from cancer by Roe v. Wade?”
See also:
AP Article on ABC News “Women Wrongly Warned Cancer, Abortion Tied”
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
