Summary: Higher Exposure to Estrogen, Higher Risk of Breast Cancer

The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute claims that the more estrogen a women is exposed to in her lifetime, the higher her risk for breast cancer. Abortion in women under 18 and over 30 years old carries the greatest risk of getting breast cancer.

• Fact sheet from the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute claims that the physiology of the breast provides the strongest evidence of the causal link between abortion and breast cancer. This is based on two principles: the more estrogen a woman is exposed to in her lifetime, the higher her risk for breast cancer. This is due to the fact that estrogen can cause cancer by either damaging DNA inside the cells or by causing cells to divide without control. If a woman starts her menstrual cycle early and continues to menstruate into her late 50’s, she is at higher risk for breast cancer, as she has been exposed to monthly estrogen elevations for a long period of time. The second principle indicates that the earlier a woman's breast matures from prepubescent to reproductive/lactative, the lower her risk of breast cancer. Women who undergo full-term pregnancies have a lower risk of breast cancer and women who remain childless have a higher risk of breast cancer. Abortion in women under 18 and over 30 years old carries the greatest risk because these women have the highest percentage of immature lobules in their breasts (this is where the cancers usually arise).¹

¹The Biologic Cause of the Abortion Breast Cancer Link: The Physiology of the Breast, Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, May 2004 (revised).