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Abortion & Breast Cancer: Is There a Link?
It is estimated that over 43,000 women died of breast cancer in the United States last year. Globally 685,000 deaths were attributed to this terrible disease. The number one risk factor for developing breast cancer is being female. Does a history of abortion compound this risk?
There have been over 100 studies to date which tracked the development of breast cancer in women who have had at least one abortion. In 79 of the studies, there was found to be an increased risk of breast cancer in women who had previously had an induced abortion. Studies from other countries found an even higher correlation. One hundred percent of the studies conducted in India and Japan showed an increased risk of breast cancer in women who had gone through an abortion.
According to these studies, how much of an increased risk depended on the number of abortions. In 2014, a meta-analysis published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control found a 44% average increased risk of breast cancer among women with abortion histories. For women who had experienced two abortions, the risk increased to 76%.
The American Cancer Society believes that hormones may play a role in breast cancer development. According to Care Net, estrogen and progesterone are both initiators and promoters in the development of cancer. That would help to explain the discrepancy between female and male breast cancer rates, which currently are 1 in 8 females compared to 1 in 726 males.
When a woman becomes pregnant, her body begins producing estrogen and progesterone at 2000% above the normal rate. The increase in hormones facilitates cell multiplication in the breasts as the woman's body prepares for breast feeding. As the pregnancy progresses, this process turns off. After 32 weeks of pregnancy, many of these cells have matured fully to begin producing milk. Mature breast cells are less likely to become cancerous.
Abortion interrupts this process.
When a woman has an abortion, the pregnancy is terminated before the switching-off process has begun, leaving her breast cells in the multiplication phase, as her body is still full of estrogen and progesterone. This is not the case for a miscarriage, because in a miscarriage, the hormone levels do not reach that of a normal pregnancy.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. This rate has been steadily increasing since 1973, when the ratio was one in twelve.
In 2000, the New England Journal of Medicine added abortion to its list of risk factors for breast cancer.
Most of us had no idea.
https://www.care-net.org/abundant-life-blog/researchers-uncover-a-hidden-cause-of-breast-cancer
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/breast-cancer
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