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

MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Last week, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer published a press release noting that the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an organization of the National Academies of Science, has listed "prior first trimester abortion" as a risk factor for subsequent premature birth. [1,2]  Leading radio networks carried the story, but not the mainstream print press.

It is understandable that journalists who originally covered the IOM's report on premature births on July 13 might have missed the inclusion of abortion as an "immutable medical risk factor" for premature birth.  The information was buried in a table on page 519 of the report and omitted in the IOM's press release. [2,3] 

Nevertheless, what will women think if the press never reports this risk of abortion?  The information impacts many women, children and doctors.  Approximately 1.29 million abortions were performed in the U.S. in 2002. [4]

"Women have the right to know that premature birth is associated with cerebral palsy for children and breast cancer for mothers, regardless of the prevailing ideology of the U.S. elite," asserted Karen Malec, president of the coalition.

"Childlessness is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer.  The post-abortive woman who prematurely delivers before 32 weeks gestation is at risk for childlessness and breast cancer.  Why aren't women being told?" demanded Malec, a cancer survivor.

Journalists covered a story about U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman and Carolyn Maloney and other Democrats on the U.S. House Government Reform Committee who on July 17, 2006 accused crisis pregnancy centers of "providing false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion." [5]

Shouldn't the Democrats be asked why they haven't done their homework on the risks of abortion?

Billionaire Warren Buffett is giving the Gates Foundation, a large contributor to Planned Parenthood, approximately $37 billion.

Shouldn't Warren Buffett and Bill Gates be asked whether it troubles them that their gifts to Planned Parenthood will cause more cases of cerebral palsy in children, neonatal deaths and breast cancer in mothers?

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.