New in the news: The journal of science this week has an article dealing with a novel new treatment for Breast Cancer, namely "the abortion pill" RU-486 (Known in this country as mifepristone, or "mifi" as it's called by all the hip OB-GYNs).
To summarize as best as I can, some forms of familial breast cancer have a mutated gene known as BRCA-1 (pronounced "Braca one"). In this type of breast cancer, the tumor cells have more than the average number of receptors for the female hormone progesterone. It is believed that this leads the tumor cells to be more sensitive to progesterone, and thus grow at a higher rate than normal. Mifepristone is what's known as a progesterone agonist, which means that it binds to the BRCA-1 tumor cell's receptors and prevent progesterone from acting there. In short, mifepristone could help to delay or prevent breast cancer.
But the benefits of this article go beyond the science and the hope for cures. Oh no, this discovery could help on the literal front lines of the abortion debate, i.e. the protest lines. Read on to hear how I plan to one-up a particularly cantankerous anti-choicer.
For years I've been volunteering my Saturday mornings to serve as a patient escort for my local women's clinic. As such, I get lots of contact with those lovely people screaming about "the holocaust" that is abortion. The job of patient escort mostly consists of serving as a distraction from the screaming freaky-freaks while the patient and loved ones walk in to the clinic. Occasionally I have to convince a husband/boyfriend/father/brother not to beat the hell out of one or another of the protesters. But most of the time, I stand out front watching the bloody signs walk back and forth.
99% of what these "pro-life" (until birth) protesters say doesn't bother me. I'm well known to stay after my shift to talk/debate with them over the issue. But there's this one guy who really gets under my nerves. Let's call him Mike. He's a 50 year old old-school Catholic, and shows up every week with this worn blue sign declaring "Abortion Causes Breast Cancer". Stylistically it's similar to the famous NOW "Keep Abortion Legal" sign we all know and love. As a medical student, I've tried for over a year to show him why and how abortion doesn't cause breast cancer. I've sited government agencies, including the National Cancer Institute.
The relationship between induced and spontaneous abortion and breast cancer risk has been the subject of extensive research beginning in the late 1950s. Until the mid-1990s, the evidence was inconsistent. Findings from some studies suggested there was no increase in risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion, while findings from other studies suggested there was an increased risk. Most of these studies, however, were flawed in a number of ways that can lead to unreliable results. Only a small number of women were included in many of these studies, and for most, the data were collected only after breast cancer had been diagnosed, and women's histories of miscarriage and abortion were based on their "self-report" rather than on their medical records. Since then, better-designed studies have been conducted. These newer studies examined large numbers of women, collected data before breast cancer was found, and gathered medical history information from medical records rather than simply from self-reports, thereby generating more reliable findings. The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.
I've shown him the studies themselves, from the International Journal of Cancer , the Lancet , and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists . The evidence had no effect. I tried pointing out how as a Catholic, the church looks down upon lies. Nothing. I even tried to get him to ask his own doctor's opinion, figuring that maybe a trusted authority would convince him. He never asked.
Well, with this new development, I'm planning on coming Saturday with one of the soon to be printed newspaper articles on the "Miraculous" anti-cancer effects of Mifepristone. Now that abortion research has directly lead to a possible cure for breast cancer, maybe I can get him to put down his sign. Maybe.