Abortion Myths: Claimed Links between Abortion and Medical Problems:

Introduction: Women have every right to make informed decisions about their reproductive health care, and should be provided with accurate information about the medical risks of any reproductive decision. However, many state legislatures have passed or considered legislation, often termed “informed consent” laws, aimed at limiting abortion access by increasing the regulations on abortion providers and clinics. Some of the proposed legislation also uses “scare tactics” in an effort to discourage women from choosing abortion. For example, Washington state legislators introduced a bill in 2003 that would require physicians to tell women that abortion is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. The scientific evidence simply does not support this claim.

Claim: Abortion Increases the Risk of Breast Cancer

The claim that abortion increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer has received significant media attention in the last year, mainly due to the controversial removal of the National Cancer Institute’s statement from its website that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer. In fact, studies from the 1950’s through the 1990’s showed inconsistent results, though many of these studies were flawed in ways that made their results unreliable.[1]

In early 2003, the National Cancer Institute convened a Workshop on Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer. The epidemiological findings from that workshop conclude that it is well established that induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.[2]

This recent and authoritative finding concurs with many earlier studies, including one published in 1997 in the New England Journal of Medicine, which observed:

Overall, the risk of breast cancer in women with a history of induced abortion was not different from that in women without such a history, after potential confounding by age, parity, age at delivery of a first child, and calendar period was taken into account.[3]

For additional fact sheets addressing the alleged link between abortion and breast cancer:

National Cancer Institute, Cancer Facts: Abortion, Miscarriage, and Breast Cancer Risk, May 30, 2003.

Breast Cancer Action, Abortion and Breast Cancer: A Moral Position as a Conflict of Interest, May/June 2002. Available at http://www.bcaction.org.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Fact Sheet: Anti-Choice Claims About Abortion and Breast Cancer, May 2002. Available at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/facts/fact_cancer_022800.html.

Feminist Women’s Health Center, Women’s Health Information, Abortion and Breast Cancer, the Unproven Link, 2002. Available at http://www.fwhc.org/abortion/abcancer.htm.

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Claim: Abortion Leads to Subsequent Infertility

Infertility is no more of a risk for women who choose abortion than for other women, according to several studies.[4] There is a small chance that a woman will develop an infection following either childbirth or an abortion. Fewer than one percent of women undergoing surgical abortion develop an infection.[5] The rate of infection is even lower for women who chose medical abortion.[6] If an infection occurs after either childbirth or abortion, it has the potential to impair future fertility.

Information regarding the myth that abortion causes infertility is not widely available—except from pro-life organizations. As some observers have noted, if infertility were indeed a potential consequence of abortion, presumably the medical establishment would devote more time to evaluating and publicizing that risk.[7]

Claim: Women Who Have Abortions May Develop “Post Abortion Syndrome”

Anti-choice activists have tried for decades to demonstrate the existence of a “Post-Abortion Syndrome” similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.[8] Most medical authorities, however, have strongly rejected the hypothesis that women who undergo abortions are likely to experience negative emotional repercussions.

Studies have repeatedly shown that abortion does not lead to mental health trauma. In the late 1980’s, President Regan’s own Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, reported that abortion-related psychological concerns were “minuscule from a public health perspective.” The American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have likewise determined that a woman suffers no adverse psychological effects from terminating an unwanted pregnancy.[9]

Instead, reports and studies show that women primarily feel relief following an abortion, and that the best predictor of emotional well-being after an abortion is self esteem prior to the procedure.[10]

For additional fact sheets regarding so-called “Post Abortion Syndrome”:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Fact Sheet: The Emotional Effects of Induced Abortion, November 2001.

Claim: A Fetus Feels Pain During an Abortion

Mainstream medical opinions agree that a fetus does not develop the biological structures necessary to perceive pain before 26 weeks.[11] Premature newborns respond significantly less to pain at 26-27 weeks than full term newborns.[12] Even after the necessary biological structures are in place, however, researchers believe that the fetus does not develop sufficient consciousness to feel pain until after birth.[13]

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued the following statement:

For additional fact sheets regarding fetal perception:

Dr. Stewart Derbyshire, The Science and Politics of Fetal Pain, April 9, 2000. Available at http://www.prochoiceforum.org.uk/comm53.asp.

Planned Parenthood of America, The Facts Speak Louder Than “The Silent Scream,” 1985. Available at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/abortion/silentscream.htm.