A study of 83,000 women worldwide published last week found conclusively that having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. The study, conducted by a team from the University of Oxford and led by Dr. Valerie Beral, was published in the Lancet, a British medical journal.
Proponents of the false claim that having an abortion or a miscarriage increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer use several studies that suggested a slight risk to back up their arguments. The Oxford researchers asked authors of all the earlier studies to provide their original data, and most complied, according to the New York Times. Beral’s exhaustive study looked at the quality of methodology of each of the studies and found a major consistent systematic flaw among the studies that found an increased risk, according to the Washington Post.
The so-called link between breast cancer and abortion propagated by the anti-abortion movement was previously discounted by over 100 breast cancer researchers at a three-day conference convened by the National Cancer Institute in 2003.
JOIN US! Sign up for the March for Women’s Lives on April 25
DONATE to protect abortion rights
