Summary: Induced Abortions and Estrogen: A Likely Cause for Breast Cancer

According to Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, abortion causes breast cancer in about 5% of women who have an abortion. This results in approximately 10,000 cases a year of breast cancer that can be attributed to abortion. After an induced abortion, the female is exposed to very high levels of estrogen, which can act as a mitogen and a carcinogen on breast tissue. This would leave her with more places for cancers to start.

• In an article written by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi in a journal called Imago Hominis, the author talks about the ongoing controversy regarding the link between breast cancer and abortion. According to Lanfranchi, abortion causes breast cancer in about 5% of women who have an abortion. This results in approximately 10,000 cases a year of breast cancer that can be attributed to abortion. Studies have shown that the longer a pregnancy exists before an abortion, the higher the risk of breast cancer. This is due to the presence of estrogen in the breast. During normal pregnancy, breast tissue contains microscopic units called lobules, which mature and differentiate to become functional mammary tissue (type 3 lobules). After an induced abortion, breast tissue does not achieve this maturation and estrogen levels remain very high. Estrogen then induces the proliferation of the more immature (type 1 and 2) lobules, which are more sensitive to DNA damage and cancer formation. A woman who is pregnant and gets an abortion loses the protection against breast cancer that a full term pregnancy would have given her because more cancer-resistant type 3 lobules would not be formed and the higher numbers of the immature lobules would leave her breast with more places for cancers to start. Abortions also increase the risk of having premature deliveries of subsequent pregnancies which in themselves increase the breast cancer risk.¹

¹The Breast Physiology and the Epidemiology of the Abortion Breast Cancer Link, Imago Hominis, 2005, pp. 228-236.