DELAYED BIRTH

Delayed birth equals more cancers and preterm births.  
Western Journal of Medicine.
Brent Rooney. 
2001;174;385-386

To the editor, Unknown to them, Stein and Susser, by advocating that is all right to delay birth into a woman's late 30's and early 40's, are encouraging more preterm births and more cancers for mothers.1

BREAST CANCER Consider "Alice" who is first time pregnant at age 20 years. Would it be all right if "Alice" "terminates" this pregnancy and eventually has a first birth, at say, age 35 years? Stein and Susser would have to agree that, in general, such a decision is fine and healthy. I would argue that when Alice signs the consent form for the termination, she should  be informed that delaying her pregnancy by 10 to 15 years substantially increases her relative breast cancer risk. A 15-year delay in first full-term pregnancy increases relative breast cancer risk by 67.3% (absolute increase: 8.41%).2  Nancy  Krieger  wrote, "Conversely,  early  age at  FFTP [First Full-Term Pregnancy] consistently has emerged as the strongest protective factor [against breast cancer]".3  A ten-year delay in age at first full- term pregnancy by terminating earlier pregnancy increases relative breast cancer risk by 41% (absolute increase: 5.13%)

PRETERM  BIRTH RISK Barbara  Luke  and  Judith  Lumley, recognized authorities in the field of premature births, have identified induced abortion as a risk factor for prematurity.4,5 In her book on preventing prematurity Luke discusses her belief that induced abortion leads to an "incompetent cervix,"(4) whereas Lumley believes that induced abortion causes intrauterine  infection.5  In  1992  Janet  Daling et al. reported that women with previous induced abortions had a 140% elevated  risk  of  intraamniotic  infection  in  subsequent pregnancies.6  To my knowledge at least 16  studies  show that previous induced abortions boost risk of prematurity.5,7-21 Therefore, an elective procedure that Stein and Susser sanction increases the risks of breast cancer and subsequent preterm birth.22

Informed medical consent In both the United States and Canada induced abortion is legally considered to be an elective medical procedure.23 For an elective  procedure even remote-1 in 100,000- risks of serious adverse side-effects must be disclosed on consent forms. The risks of breast cancer and preterm birth addressed in this letter are orders of magnitude higher than one in 100,000 and must be disclosed on abortion clinic consent forms.2-23 It is a scandal that these risks are not  currently  disclosed  on such consent forms.

"FIRST, DO NO HARM"    Both medical practitioners and medical researchers have an ethical  obligation  to,  "First, do no  harm."  For medical researchers  this  means  not 'turning a blind eye' to very serious adverse side-effects.  How  does  this  specifically apply to the medical field in the current context? About 2 years ago Stephanie Carter, at the age of 17 years, had an induced abortion performed by Dr. Charles Benjamin.  On  the consent form the words "breast cancer" did not  appear.24  Stephanie Carter has filed a law suit against Dr. Benjamin in a court of law alleging, in part, that Benjamin did not inform her of the breast cancer risks of that induced abortion.24

 Brent Rooney

Independent Medical Researcher Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition 3456 Dunbar St. (146) Vancouver, Canada V6S 2C2 stopcancer@yahoo.com [web:     www.vcn.bc.ca/~whatsup]

West J Med 2001;174:385-386