Contact: Karen Malec, Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, 847-421-4000

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 24 /Standard Newswire/ -- "Susan G. Komen for the Cure is no friend of women," said Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. "Komen perpetuates the breast cancer epidemic by withholding the truth that abortion increases breast cancer risk. We have three challenges for Komen.

"First, we challenge Komen to debate the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link with us at the next Catholic Health Association (CHA) meeting or another venue. Since science is on our side, we expect Komen will duck the debate, as others have. [1,2,3]

"Second, Komen justifies its denial of an ABC link by using studies that were severely criticized in the medical journals, Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons and Ethics and Medics, for violating fundamental rules of epidemiology. [4,5,6,7] No experts have ever challenged the conclusions reached in these journals. Komen must follow customary scientific procedure by sending letters to the journals proving that their conclusions are incorrect.

"Third, Komen should stop giving funds to Planned Parenthood, an organization that has inflicted considerable harm on women's health through its sales of abortions and hormonal contraceptives with estrogen and progestin (acknowledged by the World Health Organization as cancer-causing)." [8,9]

Joel Brind, endocrinology professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, argued that donations to Komen may be doing more harm than good because childbearing is known to offer significant protection against breast cancer and Planned Parenthood deprives women of that protective effect. He explained:

"Since Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the U.S., and since it is clear that abortion leaves a girl or woman with a higher long-term risk of breast cancer than had she chosen not to have the abortion, it is arguable that donations to Komen may actually serve to cause more breast cancer, rather than to fight against it."

Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg reports on his blog that Komen's founder, Nancy Goodman Brinker, was the keynote speaker at the CHA's convention earlier this month. [10] Brinker, an abortion enthusiast, has served on Planned Parenthood's advisory board and is now using the unsuspecting bishop and CHA to clean up Komen's reputation among donors turned off by its gifts to Planned Parenthood.

"I suspect Bishop Lynch would not support the American Lung Association if it gave funds to tobacco companies to do lung cancer screenings on its customers," asserted Malec. "Why, then, support Komen's grants to Planned Parenthood to do breast cancer screenings on its clientele, especially when legitimate medical providers that don't damage women's health are widely accessible?"

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women's organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.

References available online at: www.abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases/090624/index.htm