Abortion not linked to breast cancer

An abortion or a miscarriage does not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, according to results released Monday from a decadelong study of 105,716 women.

The findings are the latest, and perhaps most convincing, in a series of studies that have discredited a concern used by anti-abortion activists to dissuade women from having the procedure.

"It's important for women to have the facts," said Dr. Karin Michaels of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Michaels is lead author of the study.

A 2003 expert panel convened by the National Cancer Institute concluded that no evidence supports a link between abortion and breast cancer, she said, "and our study is very much in line with that."

But Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, took issue with the findings. The cancer institute "must suspect a link, or else they know that a link really exists," she said. "Why else would they continue to pay for these studies?"