HALIFAX — A group providing information about the link between abortion and breast cancer were asked to leave an international conference on breast cancer in Halifax this month. Ellen Chesal of the group, Positive Options for Women, said that their table at the conference was very well received by most of the conference attendees. “We ran out of material and had to go out to run off more,” she said.
On the second day of the conference, however, the group was approached by one conference organizer and accused of misleading women. Chesal said, “A board member from the Breast Cancer Foundation approached us, enraged, and spitting out accusations about us having a hidden agenda and that we were presenting a lie to frighten women from having abortions.”
The group was called to a meeting with conference organizers that afternoon and asked to leave. “They were very polite at the time,” said Chesal. Chesal presented the letter that had been sent months before clearly outlining their intention and the kind of material they would be presenting. At that point, the organizers changed tactics and said that the Muslim women in attendance were “completely appalled” by their mention of abortion. “We were accused of being ‘insensitive’ since in Muslim countries, one simply never mentions the word ‘abortion,’” said Chesal.
The group’s aim was to inform women of the well-documented connection between abortion and breast cancer, called the ABC Link. Most western cancer organizations, including the Canadian Cancer Society have vigorously denied the link and ignored the mounting medical and statistical evidence that a history of abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by as much as 160%. 28 out of 37 worldwide studies have independently linked induced abortion with breast cancer since the question was first analyzed in 1957. Since the advent of legalized abortion however, most groups and medical organizations have attempted to deny or cover up the link.
With the equating of women’s rights with abortion on demand, the suggestion that abortion could in any way be detrimental to women’s health has come to be seen as an attack on women’s freedom. Chesal found out to her surprise that the organizers were opposed to women even receiving information.
Chesal said that she felt their efforts were not wasted however, “Lots of information went out with many women from many countries,” she said. “A Nigerian woman was surprised we were leaving and took a lot of our stuff as we were packing up.”
“One woman from Mississippi said she had just finished counseling a sixteen-year-old with breast cancer. It was the youngest she had ever seen. She didn’t know at the time to ask if she had had an abortion. Now she knows about the link.”
See also:
Information on the Abortion Breast Cancer Link
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
