Summary: Flawed Study Stating No Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer

Harvard Nurses Study II's conclusion that abortion is not associated with increased incidence of breast cancer is flawed on several counts.

• Several methodological flaws in data analysis render the Harvard Nurses Study II's conclusions flawed. The failure to exclude women with recent abortions, include many appropriate cases, and apply appropriate statistical adjustments (for number of spontaneous abortions and for the transient risk associated with full-term pregnancy) affected the study's conclusion. Joel Brind, Ph.D., president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, considers this failure to use proper methodology as an example of "strong and pervasive bias" in recent literature concerning induced abortion and breast cancer.

¹Induced Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk: A Critical Analysis of the Report of the Harvard Nurses Study II, Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol. 12, No.2, Summer 2007.