Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993 TAG: 9307240147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Farris, a political novice whose staunch anti-abortion sentiments already have been targeted by Democrats seeking to portray him as an extremist, told two Southside Virginia newspapers about a New York state medical study he said establishes the link between abortion and breast cancer.
But those claims were challenged Friday by a cancer expert at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond, who labeled them "inflammatory" and described as "weak" a particular study provided by the Farris campaign.
There is "no relationship" between abortion and breast cancer, said Dr. Christopher Desch, director of cancer outreach and control at MCV's Massey Cancer Center.
Farris spokesman Mike Rothfeld responded: "Find a pro-life doctor. I'm sure he'd give you a different answer."
A pair of political analysts suggested that by discussing such controversial abortion views, Farris lengthens the odds that he can persuade voters he's a mainstream candidate.
"If he makes assertions that seem to be wildly outside the popular conversation, the popular debate, about abortion, it's likely to hurt him," said Robert Holsworth, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist.
The New York study cited by Farris, reported in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 1989, covered a group of breast cancer patients under age 40 in that state who had had abortions.
The study found that women who'd had an abortion were almost twice as likely to develop breast cancer. The cancer odds were four times greater for women who'd had multiple abortions, according to the study.
The study also noted that of 22 other studies, six found no association between abortion and breast cancer, and a seventh found a lower risk of breast cancer among women who'd had at least one abortion.
"I don't put much credence in the study. It does nothing to prove abortion causes breast cancer," said Desch. "It is not generally accepted in the medical community" that abortion is a risk factor for breast cancer, he added.
"The claim [Farris] is making is particularly inflammatory," said Desch, the principal local investigator for a national breast cancer prevention trial program. "I think it's a terrible thing to scare women like that."
Overall, one in nine women will develop breast cancer, Desch said. The risk increases with various factors, most notably age and a family history of the disease. Delaying having children until after age 30 also increases a woman's risk for breast cancer by up to 10 percent, Desch said.
In interviews this week with The Gazette-Virginian and The News & Record, two South Boston newspapers, Farris said that if women are to have abortions, he supports "informed consent" of the risks involved. Part of that consent, he said, should be based on information that with abortion, "there is a 90 percent increase in the chance of getting breast cancer."
"If you've had two abortions or more, your chances of getting breast cancer go up 300 percent," he said during a taped interview with the Gazette-Virginian.
Farris was unavailable for comment Friday. Rothfeld, his aide, said the GOP candidate "doesn't pretend to be a doctor. But I don't think this is anything to be dismissed."
But Farris "already has a problem with people believing he's on the fringe," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political analyst. "And this can only reinforce that image."
"Mike is pro-life. That's not a secret," Rothfeld said. "I fail to see anything un-mainstream. Why is it unreasonable to be concerned with the health of women?"
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.