She looks uncertain when she enters the counselling clinic in the centre of Warsaw. After a while she is on the gynaecological chair. A doctor dressed in white, wearing big round glasses, stands in front of her. He bends down. He can immediately see the cervix and the head of a three-month-old child.

"I am very experienced in these things, ten minutes and it is all over", he says. And then he begins 'minor surgery'. After widening the neck of the womb he uses forceps. He grabs the little head, smashes it, pulls it apart and brings it out. Then he grabs the other parts of the body: little hand, little leg, a piece of the chest, a nose... He throws them to a water closet, flushes the toilet and washes his hands. "Now you can get dressed," he announces to the patient.

Today she recollects that moment, "I was lying stiff; then I felt dizzy. Holding on the wall I walked out of the room and I reached the bus stop with much difficulty. I began bleeding at home." Then she picked up the receiver and called her boy friend. "Marek, it is all over but I feel very badly..." she whispered. "Everyone says so; this is the first time, you simply panic. The next abortions will be easier," he told her. And she was struck dumb with terror.

The freedom to make personal choices is a right but when pregnant there's another human being in existence and the "choice" of abortion takes away that baby's right to life.

Early feminists opposed abortion on these very grounds, saying as they were fighting against being treated as "commodities" why would they want to impose such treatment on others, let alone children.

The Pope reminded the pharmacists that protecting human life from conception until natural death is part of their job. Benedict also encouraged them "to reflect upon the ever broader functions they are called to undertake, especially as intermediaries between doctor and patient," and upon their role in educating patients "in the correct use of medications" and in informing them of "the ethical implications of the use of particular drugs."

"It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short someone's life," the Pope said.

"Women have always had all of my respect," the cardinal said, "but I have never agreed, nor will I ever agree, with feminists of the bad kind, who are given over to everything except helping women."

According to the cardinal, feminists, together with the United Nations, are the ones pressuring the governments of the world to legalize abortion.

Feminist groups, he explained, do not fight for the dignity of women, but rather they bring women down with the help of some sectors of society. "Only an imbecile, a moron, someone ignorant of everything, could defend that position," he said.

Our country boasts that it cares deeply for the handicapped, yet provides publicly funded testing so that handicapped children can be aborted. The gene for Downs Syndrome was discovered by a man who thought it would help us to prepare for Downs babies and improve their lives. Instead, it's being used to commit a form of pre-birth genocide on some of the most innocent, loving and beautiful people on Earth. Leave your car in a handicapped parking spot and you'll be fined. Abort your handicapped child and you'll receive government financing.

Kathryn "Katie" McCoy, 19, a Plainfield High School graduate, was arrested Thursday after she was discharged from a Louisville hospital, said Lt. Barry Wilkerson, head of the Louisville metro police homicide unit.

She also faces charges of concealing the birth of a child and tampering with physical evidence.[..]

Sometime late Tuesday, McCoy went into the bathroom connected to her dorm room in Anniversary Hall on Bellarmine's campus, according to the arrest citation. Ballarmine is a Catholic liberal arts school with about 2,600 students on the edge of Louisville's downtown.

McCoy spent more than an hour inside the bathroom before she came to the door and asked her roommate for a garbage bag, the citation said.

"McCoy had let the infant fall into the toilet, causing its death," the citation said. Wilkerson said the death was consistent with drowning.

An autopsy done Wednesday indicated the baby girl was born alive and was close to or at full term, said Gayle Norris, a deputy Jefferson County coroner.

At some point late Tuesday, McCoy took the baby in the garbage bag to a small trash room, Wilkerson said. That's when the roommate, suspicious, went to see what McCoy put there and found the baby’s body.

The roommate then called police, Wilkerson said.

Before police arrived, McCoy allegedly returned to the trash room and brought the baby back to her dorm room and put her in a gym bag. She continued to deny there was a baby after police arrived, preventing medics from trying to help the baby, the citation said.

I was curious to know how abortion opponents would respond to what certainly seems like a devastating refutation of their position. "Anybody can look at data and pick and choose whatever they want," Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, told me. "The real fact is that abortion is ending life in the womb and should never be legal." I asked him if he accepted the finding that abortion was more dangerous where it was illegal. No, he said. "When something is illegal, people are more careful." So legal abortion is more unsafe? According to Sedlak, it is indeed.

Unfortunately, for some groups, when it comes to breast cancer, it is "Selective Awareness" month.

The National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health) and some groups with an interest in "reproductive rights" or breast cancer research are keeping women in the dark about two risk factors for breast cancer: induced abortion and hormonal contraception.

The chief reason women are not being informed of these risks is not a lack of evidence. It is an epidemic of political correctness.

Regrets? Some days are better than others. Sometimes I'm relieved and know it was for the best. Others I'm a little melancholy and sad. Lately I've been crying a lot about the baby, wondering if it was a boy or a girl or how my life would have been if I had carried him or her to term.

It is my opinion that Planned Parenthood is, in effect, a terrorist organization. Oh, I know that many of my readers are ready to dismiss me right now for making such a strong claim. Others will accuse me of being a __________. They will fill in the blank with any number of the popular insulting and disparaging labels now acceptable in a culture that has redefined "choice" to include the taking of innocent human life, and disfigured the hallowed concept of "freedom" to mean a right to do anything at all, including commit formerly unspeakable horrors against an entire class of people, such as children in the first home of the whole human race.

Though the word "terrorism" is somewhat difficult to define these days, the Code of Federal Regulations definition certainly supported the assertion with these words "...The term "terrorism" means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience". (22 U.S.C. § 2656f (d)) Although the section is regularly revised, the thrust of the definition still stands. Children in the womb are certainly "non-combatants". Recent stories heralded the survival of a 21 week prematurely born baby. Yet, babies that age and older are routinely killed by abortion. Planned Parenthood is one of the largest organizations engaged in this activity and continually spreading propaganda intended to influence increasing numbers of people that such action is acceptable.

Planned Parenthood has pulled off an amazing ruse. They have managed to dress themselves up as a "Health Care Provider" and include the taking of the life of children as a service under their offering of "reproductive services". They have insinuated themselves in the entire delivery of "medical services" and now receive massive government funding. Their web site tells visitors that they are "Your Trusted Provider of Health Information and Services". Yet, there is absolutely nothing "reproductive" about abortion and it is not a service to the child, the mother, the father or society.

Immediate Action Needed!

This Wednesday, on Oct 24th, Holy Cross College, A Catholic college in Massachusetts, will allow the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy to hold a seminar on their campus. This Alliance is completely at odds with teachings of the Catholic Church, but most importantly features Planned Parenthood and NARAL as part of their lineup. The Alliance advocates that youth should receive "comprehensive pregnancy prevention services" which include access to contraception and comprehensive sex education. This will give Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice of Massachusetts a venue to educate other professionals on how to reach teens with their pro-abortion message. One seminar presenter has even been known to include devices known as "sex toys" in her talks on college campuses!

We must ensure that Planned Parenthood and NARAL don't get a platform to push their pro-abortion agenda. We must make sure that Holy Cross abides by the policies of the Bishops and kicks out Planned Parenthood and NARAL, and doesn't condone their presence.

The President of the College, Fr. McFarland, has been asked by Bishop McManus, alumni, and students to cancel the event, but he is refusing to follow their request. Fr. McFarland sent out a rebuttal to Bishop McManus saying that he doesn't see things the same way, and that by his interpretation it's alright to allow Planned Parenthood and NARAL to come to Holy Cross.

Something is wrong at Holy Cross, help us reach the people who can change it.

Join with thousands of concerned pro-lifers and call, e-mail, or petition Holy Cross to cancel the event.

* Send an e-mail to Fr. McFarland and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees by e-mailing holycross@studentsforlife.org. This e-mail will be forwarded to Fr. McFarland, the Board, and Bishop McManus.

*Call Fr. McFarland at 508-793-2525.

* Petition Fr. McFarland and the Holy Cross Board of Trustees by going to www.holycrossalumni.org.

To learn more about what is going on at Holy Cross College and follow the latest developments, go to www.holycrossalumni.org.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Sunday that even if the court's Roe v. Wade decision is reversed, it has paved the way for permanent women's access to abortion.

She compared abortion statutes to divorce requirements that differ by state, saying that women able to afford train or plane tickets could still access abortion in states that legalize the practice.

"I do not believe the court's overruling Roe v. Wade - which I don't think will happen - will prevent women of means from accessing an abortion," Ginsburg told a crowd of about 500 at Atlanta's Ahavath Achim synagogue. "It will have a devastating impact on poor women."

"Something felt really wrong when I went back. He started poking me with... it looked like a syringe. He pulled it, and it was so horribly painful. He then said the uterus hadn't cleared yet. He gave me three more pills. I went home that night but couldn't sleep."

Vanessa returned to the doctor the next morning and he again stuck a "huge" syringe into her cervix.

"He was pulling with the syringe for 30 minutes... It felt like he was removing my womb.

"It was so painful... I told him 'I'm going to die'. He said that sometimes the pills don't clean the womb properly."

Two days later Vanessa still bled severely and suffered agonising cramps. When she called the doctor he assured her that pain and bleeding were common after an abortion. He recommended she "come in" for more pills.

Her ordeal was not yet over.

"The bleeding didn't stop. I bled the whole week after the procedure. When I went back to work I collapsed at my desk. My co-workers and my family didn't know I had had an abortion. They thought I had had a miscarriage," said Vanessa.

She refused to go back to the same doctor because he "would just give me more pills".

The bleeding continued.

"We rushed to the hospital. I had to tell doctors that I had had an abortion and they said I must call the doctor who performed it.

"When I called him he said, 'you know what, I'm not in Pretoria at the moment, come back to me on Thursday'."

Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, recently received 175 pages of new documents pertaining to the RU-486 abortion pill that had previously been withheld by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to Judicial Watch, the documents confirm that the drug was manufactured by the China-based Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Company at the time of approval. Hua Lian failed its first FDA inspection and was not in compliance with FDA standards at the time the FDA approved its manufacturing facility in August of 2000. This is the first official documentation confirming that the drug was manufactured in China.

The documents also highlight conflicts of interest in the testing of the abortion drug. One of the drug trials was conducted by Dr. Suzanne Poppema, President of the National Abortion Federation. Another trial was performed by Dr. Daniel Mishell, a senior scientist for RU-486's patent holder, the Population Council.

"These documents show the reckless and politicized nature of the FDA;s decision to approve the abortion pill," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The FDA certainly has a lot of explaining to do. For starters, why has the FDA previously refused to disclose the Chinese connection and the related safety issues? And why did the FDA allow the abortion lobby to participate in the clinical trial process? The American people deserve answers."

Daniel Riase, 21, was charged with trying to poison his girlfriend and administering a drug with the intention of causing an abortion or miscarriage.

Riase was arrested on February 25 when spiked his girlfriend's drink and caused the abortion.

Hampton Police Cpl. Allison Good indicated that Riase allegedly crushed two misoprostol pills, used in the abortion drug RU 486, and put them in the drink of his 19-year-old partner I-Sharii Best.

Room 508 in a building in Van der Walt Street in the heart of the CBD, has heard many whispered conversations about due dates and failed condoms. Five-oh-eight - a secret code: deciphered, it reads "abortion".

I found Dr Morina's number advertised on an A4 sheet plastered on a city Street lamppost. It read: "ONE DAY QUICK, SAFE AND PAIN FREE ABORTION!!! CALL: DR MORINA. PRETORIA CENTRAL."

I was surprised to see a medical practitioner advertising so brashly - brightly coloured posters with tear-off numbers. I had collected several of these cellphone numbers, belonging to a variety of "doctors", across Pretoria.

I discovered, when investigating this proliferation of 076 numbers, that the same distinctly accented voice answered three of them. Dr MT Lucky, Dr KB Rachel, and Dr Morina were all pseudonyms for the same woman, operating a clandestine abortion clinic in Pretoria Central.

The Dr Morina I initially spoke to on the phone was not the calm, friendly, reassuring Dr Morina I was to meet in Room 508. She was abrupt and furtive, her manner intimidating.

"I can't talk to you on the phone. I'll tell you all of this in person. When do you want to meet?" she asked belligerently.

She refused to tell me where her clinic was, and arranged a rendezvous on the corner of Church and Van der Walt Streets in Pretoria Central.

Xolani Mbanjwa, fellow journalist, and I went to the meeting point and waited for Dr Morina to show up. We were acting the role of a nervous couple. My unease was certainly not faked as I scanned the crowds for a sign of the "doctor".

Suddenly, a large man approached us. He looked at us intently and leaned forward conspiratorially.

"You are looking for doctor?" he asked.

"Doctor Morina," I replied apprehensively.

"This way," he said as he turned to go. "Follow me."

A woman joined up with us as we crossed the street. This was my first glimpse of Dr Morina: a well-groomed woman in her 30s.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Bridget Brown uttered, "It's wrong to kill." The young woman with Down syndrome was talking with the Catholic Explorer about parents terminating pregnancies after undergoing prenatal screenings and learning their unborn babies have abnormalities.

Many medical workers, parents, relatives and others "aren't respecting" the Sixth Commandment, which states "you shall not kill," said the 21-year-old member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Darien.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has designated October as Respect Life Month and Brown feels very strongly about the subject, she told the Explorer Sept. 30 at her home in Darien.

Brown composed a letter on the topic of prenatal testing and dispatched it to media agencies across the nation; it was published recently in the Washington Post. She is hopeful the letter will be published in other newspapers too.

In the text, Brown compares the atrocities associated with the Holocaust to aborting unborn babies identified as having disabilities. "The world needs to know that I do not 'suffer' from Down syndrome," she wrote in the letter. "I believe in the sacred dignity of all people. And most people I know with disabilities have full and productive lives," she added in the text.

The calls were made by Life Dynamics Inc. during a private investigation of abortion clinics conducted by that organization. During the phone calls, an adult woman identified herself as a 13-year old girl involved in an active sexual relationship with a 22-year old boyfriend.

That sexual relationship is considered statutory rape, a crime in all 50 states. Statutory rape is, by legal definition, child sexual abuse. It is legally mandatory that incidents of suspected child sexual abuse be reported to authorities in Kansas.

In each case, the Kansas abortion clinics, fully understanding the age disparity, told the caller that she could get a pregnancy test with her boyfriend present without the relationship being reported by them.

Every Planned Parenthood office in Kansas told the caller that they would prescribe birth control for her without reporting, and that the 22-year old boyfriend would be allowed to pick up the birth control prescription for her.

Other abortion offices would not provide birth control for the caller, but instead referred her to Planned Parenthood, indicating that organization would not report.

What made you want to give money to the Life Center in place of your birthday gifts?

I don't like abortion, and I like babies ... like Marissa.

Do you understand what abortion is?

Yes, it's when people kill babies.

Why do you think people have abortions?

Because they don't want to do work and take care of them or they wanted a boy instead of a girl.

Some moms don't understand that it's a baby. People tell them it's not a baby yet until the baby's born. What would you tell those people?

I would tell them that it is a baby in their belly, but if they still don't want the baby they could wait until they're done [with the pregnancy] and then give the baby to someone who would want it.

There are a lot of smart adults in the world who think abortion is okay. Adults who are in charge of our country and who make our laws and who we elect as our country's leaders. They say that a woman should have a choice to have an abortion and they call themselves "pro-choice." What would you say to these adults?

Every woman should have to make the decision before and ask God before they have a baby to not have a baby if they don't want to. But if they don't get their wish, they should go through with it and ask God for not too much pain.

Do you know what the Life Center does?

It takes care of babies because it makes sure that they don't get killed.

How do you hope the Life Center will use the money you donate?

I hope they'll use it to pay for bottles for the babies if the mommies can't afford them.

You're a pretty creative kid Noelle. Can you think of an invention that you could make that would help people to know that an unborn baby is a baby?

I would make a thing that looks like a mirror and if the woman walked in front of it, she could see through her belly to the baby inside. Even if the baby's very small, she could see it.

Providing homes for unwed mothers is a necessary outreach for the pro-life movement, said Father Stefan Starzynski, a priest of the Arlington Diocese who has started two homes for unwed mothers.

He feels it is only a matter of time before Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, will be overturned and the pro-life movement needs to be ready to respond to pregnant women who need a safe haven.

"We have done the marches, we have held the banners, this is absolutely the next step," added the priest, who is parochial vicar at St. Mary of Sorrows Parish in Fairfax.

Last year Father Starzynski opened the Paul Stefan Home for Unwed Mothers, which is named for a baby born without lungs who survived for one hour. So far, nine women have stayed in the home and six babies have been born. Currently, the home has three residents. By the end of this year, another house will open on the same 50-acre property in Orange County.[...]

"So many extraordinary things have happened ... that I almost expect the extraordinary ... and lots of miracles," said the priest, who believes the Holy Spirit is guiding the project.

After renovation work was completed on the two houses, the first home opened last September. Various people and organizations donated furniture and their services to the project.

Women can stay for up to two years, which helps them get back on their feet. After an appearance on the Eternal Word Television Network, Father Starzynski began receiving hundreds of e-mails from people all over the world interested in starting homes for unwed mothers.

"God had to pick the simple people" to carry out this work, the priest said, because simple people will "do whatever God wants them to do."

God does not pick "the people who know exactly what they're doing," the priest added, because they will see the logistics of carrying out such a project as too overwhelming and won't move forward with it.

"Lake of Fire" currently on limited release in the United States, unwinds over more than two and a half hours of interviews with some of the leading figures from the pro-life and pro-choice camps.

In his article "Five Myths About Breast Cancer," LiveScience.com's columnist Christopher Wanjek says the link between abortion and breast cancer is one of five myths that women should know this October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

He calls the link a "persistent myth" that "was thoroughly resolved by the 1990s."

"Nevertheless, the Bush Administration revisited the issue in 2002, gave equal weight to the earlier, smaller studies showing a correlation, and told the National Cancer Institute to state the possible abortion-cancer connection in its fact sheets and Web site," Wanjek wrote. "It took Congressional action and a three-day conference on the topic to remove this erroneous information by 2003."[..]

Wanjek also writes that "there's not much a woman can do" to prevent breast cancer.

He admitted that women can "reduce but not eliminate the risk" but failed to cite one of the most important ways women can lower their risk of contracting breast cancer.

Attorney Mario Martinez, who represents the grandfather, told Canal Once television that the grandfather wants "to request the body of the baby because he wants him to have a Christian burial and not become an object that is discarded and thrown away. He is a person who has had a life and died an unjust and unworthy death, and therefore his grandfather wishes to bury him."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a sponsor to an initiative that includes support for legal abortion.

The initiative, titled "Deliver Now for Women and Children," was launched in New York last week by various United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. UNICEF has persistently denied that it supports abortion in any way, shape, or form.

The "Deliver Now" campaign's stated objective is the improvement of maternal and child health. It lists a number of severe maladies that affect maternal health, concluding "most maternal deaths could be prevented if women had access to and could use professional care". The campaign defines quality care as including "services before and during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period, as well as safe abortion".

The accuracy of some information from the "Deliver Now" promotional materials has also been questioned. The campaign's website appears to conflate the total number of childhood deaths with the number of deaths women suffer from maternal causes. Though childhood mortality numbers are compiled from official sources, the data for maternal mortality statistics are often unavailable, unreliable, or poorly estimated and thus are a doubtful basis for policy.

The display of baby corpses, especially when they are gruesome, may, perhaps, help some to understand the horror that is abortion. They may combat lethargy in the souls of some or, even, many. The public display of such images, however, is analogous to indiscriminate warfare. They subject everyone to a kind of violence; they take in not only those who may deserve such violent jarrings of the spirit but those whose spirits are not prepared for such assaults. They do not distinguish the innocent from the guilty.

.. speaking of effects, do we better teach people about the sanctity of human life through images of degraded human bodies, by bodies reduced to grotesque horror, or by human beauty? The reality of man is seen in the nobility of his beauty. It may well be that by such tactics as displaying images of aborted babies, especially in a public setting, we may be furthering the very "culture of death" we are trying to combat.

In a pastoral letter released for the Oct. 7 Day for Life observance in all Irish parishes, the Irish Bishops' Conference stressed that the church has a "consistent and clear message" on the sacredness of human life and must continue to foster a consistent life ethic in individual consciences, families and society.

"The church has a great deal of experience in all areas of promoting and defending human life and has given the world a lead in the intellectual, political and social battle to save and protect life from conception to natural death," the bishops said in the pastoral written in a question-and-answer format.

Three-year-old Andrew Mueting of Dodge City is a bright, happy-go-lucky, energetic little boy. But when he was 4 months old, doctors gave him a bleak prognosis.

Born with malignant infantile osteopetrosis, an exceedingly rare blood disorder that affects approximately 20 U.S. babies a year, Andrew was expected to spend his few years of life fighting anemia and infections, struggling with weak bones and eventual blindness and deafness.

Now, thanks to a new procedure that utilized his father's adult stem cells, Andrew is expected to live a long, healthy life with few ill effects.

The troubles began for Nick and Paula Mueting soon after Andrew was born. He wasn't growing, it was a struggle for him to eat and he had a bulge atop his head where most babies have a soft spot.

"He spent a week in a Wichita hospital," said Nick Mueting. "They didn't know exactly what was wrong. They saw on a blood test he was slightly anemic. Finally they took some X-rays and realized that all of his ribs were fractured and his bones appeared very dense."

A radiologist looked at the films, recalled a very rare disorder she had studied in school, and diagnosed the illness.

"Against the doctor's advice, we started researching osteopetrosis on the Internet," Mueting said. "They warned us of the severity of the disorder, but we had to learn what we could do to help our little boy."

Because the disease is so rare, there are only a few facilities in the country that treat it. One is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. It was there that Mueting learned of a machine created by a German scientist that would remove the T-cells from adult stem cells. T-cells can lead the body to reject the new, life-saving cells.

With the new treatment in mind - the only hope Andrew had for a cure - the Muetings moved temporarily to Memphis.

"Andrew had to go through eight days of chemotherapy to completely wipe out his immune system," Mueting said. "During the last five days of his treatment, I took a medicine that helped my body produce a lot of stem cells in my blood. At the end of that period ... I was hooked up to a machine for five hours as it extracted the stem cells from my blood. The stem cells ran through this machine that pulled out the potentially harmful T-cells."

HASSELBECK: I was very- at heart, I'm very against this policy because I believe it's more of a gift.

BEHAR: Are you against Social Security, too?

HASSELBECK: No. Against this policy, but then I realized that there is a benefit because I feel like this could maybe cause less abortions in the world. You know, people would keep having kids instead.

GOLDBERG: Elisabeth, Elisabeth, can I ask you one question–can I ask you a question? I just have to ask you this question since you opened this door.

HASSELBECK: Sure

GOLDBERG: Have you ever been in a position to have to make that decision?

HASSELBECK: Never, never.

GOLDBERG: Okay, then back off a little bit. Back off a little bit. Very few people want to have abortions.

HASSELBECK: I'm sure they don't.

GOLDBERG: See, I was listening.

HASSELBECK: I was just affirming what you said.

GOLDBERG: Most people do not want to have abortions. Most women do not have them with some sort of party going on. It is the hardest decision that a woman ever- wait- ever has to make. So, when you talk about it, a little bit of reverence to the women out there who have had to make this horrible decision. And one of the reasons that, that we have had to make this decision is because so many women were found bleeding, dead, with hangers in their bodies because they were doing it themselves. The idea of this was to make it safe and clean. That was the reason the law came into effect. That was why it was done.

Yesterday, journalists reported that scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center speculated on the reasons why childbearing protects women from breast cancer. They discussed a paper published in the journal Cancer Research.

Researchers reportedly told journalists that the presence of fetal cells in the mother's blood "may also benefit mothers by putting the immune system on alert for malignant cells to destroy."

Their speculation fails Occam's Razor, a fundamental scientific principle that says any hypothesis can be dismissed if it is unnecessary to explain the phenomenon. Irma and Jose Russo of Fox Chase Cancer Center showed many years ago why a full term pregnancy is protective.

Nearly all of the lobules in the childless woman's breasts are cancer-vulnerable Type 1 and 2 lobules. Up to 95% percent of all breast cancers originate in these lobules. Beginning early in a normal pregnancy, the hormone estrogen (a carcinogen) causes the breasts to grow by stimulating the lobules to multiply. Therefore, she develops more places where cancers are known to arise.

During the last months of pregnancy, pheromones produced by the fetus - human chorionic gonadotropin and human placental lactogen - play a role in maturing her lobules into fully cancer-resistant Type 4 lobules. By the end of a full term pregnancy, 85% of her lobules are Type 4 and 15% are Type 1 and 2.

A half-century of research shows that abortion raises risk by leaving women with more places in their breasts for cancers to start and that most miscarriages don't raise risk. Similarly, premature birth before 32 weeks gestation more than doubles breast cancer risk.

"Women have the right to know that a 'little bit of pregnancy' is not protective," asserted Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons published a study yesterday entitled, "The Breast Cancer Epidemic". It showed that, among seven risk factors, abortion is the "best predictor of breast cancer," and fertility is also a useful predictor.

The study by Patrick Carroll of PAPRI in London showed that countries with higher abortion rates, such as England & Wales, could expect a substantial increase in breast cancer incidence. Where abortion rates are low (i.e., Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic) a smaller increase is expected. Where a decline in abortion has taken place, (i.e., Denmark and Finland) a decline in breast cancer is anticipated.

Carroll used the same mathematical model for a previous forecast of numbers of breast cancers in future years for England & Wales based on cancer data up to 1997 that has proved quite accurate for predicting cancers observed in years 1998 to 2004.

In four countries - England & Wales, Scotland, Finland and Denmark - a social gradient has been discovered (unlike that for other cancers) whereby upper class and upwardly mobile women have more breast cancer than lower class women. This was studied in Finland and Denmark and the influence of known risk factors other than abortion was examined, but the gradient was not explained.

Carroll suggests that the known preference for abortion in this class might explain the phenomenon. Women pursuing higher educations and professional careers often delay marriage and childbearing. Abortions before the birth of a first child are highly carcinogenic.

Carroll used national data from nations believed to have "nearly complete abortion counts." Therefore, his study is not affected by recall bias.

"It's time for scientists to admit publicly what they already acknowledge privately among themselves [3,4]- that abortion raises breast cancer risk- and to stop conducting flawed research to protect the medical establishment from massive medical practice lawsuits," said Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.