In Nate Rushing’s Thursday column, Rushing said “there’s strong evidence for an abortion and breast cancer link” and cited the discredited, conspiratorial abortionbreastcancer.com group as his source.
This is dangerous misinformation that must be corrected.
There is no reputable organization that says there is any link between abortions and breast cancer.
The National Cancer Institute found that “Induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk,” in February 2003, and a review of studies since then “still does not support early termination of pregnancy as a cause of breast cancer.”
The American Cancer Society says, “At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer” and “the public is not well-served by false alarms.”
Groups like abortionbreastcancer.com cherry-pick statistics, misrepresent the results of studies and cite out-of-date studies with faulty methodologies to support their claims.
They frequently claim the support of questionable organizations that have official-sounding names (i.e.,”Association of American Physicians and Surgeons”) with bogus medical journals.
For example, one such journal, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, oft-cited by people linking breast cancer to abortion, has also published articles questioning whether HIV causes AIDS.
Don’t be fooled. These organizations do not represent mainstream scientific thought — or any scientific thought for that matter.
Rushing has completely embarrassed himself either by letting himself be tricked by dishonest charlatans without critically examining their claims or by knowingly peddling their nonsense to advance his point of view.
Either way, it doesn’t speak well of his intellect or his intellectual honesty. And it doesn’t do people who are pro-life (plenty of whom are smart, honest, good people) any favors to be associated with that.
But the Alligator should be most embarrassed for printing Rushing’s column without apparently even the slightest fact-checking.
Rushing gave incorrect and dangerous medical advice to UF’s women without knowing what he’s talking about.
The Alligator should publish a formal correction for Rushing’s mistake and deny Rushing a chance to do it again.
Editor's note: This letter refers to this column.
