Tom,

God bless you and your group for the strong witness you provided.

I'm an internist who decided 3 years ago (2 years out of residency) to stop prescribing birth control. It doesn't become an issue as much in my practice as it would in an OB/GYN's office, but it's the least I can do...

peace be with you
Clay Randall | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 9:30 am | #

Whatever your thoughts on abortion, do not let your personal zeal in defending the clump of the unborn continue to kill and maim women all over the world. Women deserve better than stuffing chemicals and black market home reamdys inside their bodies to end the prouct of their accident, rape, or abuse. You may not know, or care, but the vast majority of women in the global south are made pregnant by husbands who force them into sex and pregnancy, not allowing them any form of birth control. Of course you aren't interested in setting up shelters for these poor and abused women, but at least think of them when trying to take away the choices of others. You got to make your choice, don't tell me I cant make mine (Which I did, and I thank god for it every day.)
Jay | 04.28.04 - 12:47 pm | #

hoist by his own petard.

thanks, jay, for that great example of "pro-choice" egocentricity, deception, irrationality and total lack of compassion.
ashli | 04.28.04 - 1:23 pm | #

Even abortion advocate Mary Anne Warren wrote, in "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion," in The Problem of Abortion, Joel Feinberg, ed.(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1984) p.103], “The fact that restricting access to abortion has tragic side effects does not, in itself, show that restrictions are unjustified, since murder is wrong regardless of the consequences of prohibiting it.”
Annie Banno | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 1:32 pm | #

Thank you Dr. Messe for your courage and your clear reporting of the facts. I am so saddened by comments like the typical ones which indicate Pro-Life advocates don't care about the poor women who are pregnant and don't want to be. The argument about women in the south forced into pregnancy by their husbands is a new one to me. I lived in the south a long time and never heard of or saw such a thing. Nevertheless, killing babies is never an answer. The Pro-Choice advocates seem not to care about the women who get breast cancer from abortions, who are never able to conceive or carry a baby again and/or who suffer mightily from guilt, loss, and depression throughout the remainder of their lives. Thank you, again for your courage and determination. God bless you and your family.
Karen | 04.28.04 - 2:16 pm | #

Jay - I wonder what would happen if you let yourself realize that we are real people, who really are concerned for the mother as well as for the child. I wonder what would happen if you saw all the work the pro-life movement and various Christian churches do for those mothers you claim we don't care about. If you were truly secure in your pro-choice beliefs, you would not need to caricature us as you do.
Meg | 04.28.04 - 3:04 pm | #

Jay - As the blackest, darkest, nastiest atheist you will ever meet, I can guarantee you that the people on this site are the kindest and most caring I have even encountered.
The Raving Atheist | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 5:17 pm | #

While respecting Dr. Messe's witness, I need to say that is almost impossible to attribute a particular case of breast cancer to an individual cause. Most women with risk factors for breast cancer don't get the disease and most women who do get the disease do not have risk factors.

Population studies of breast cancer that show rising incidence in certain subpopulations do not tell you why it is happening. Since 1973, women are also having fewer children and having them later, both of which are risk factors. You just can't look at the incidence data and say abortion is the cause. Correlation is not causation.
Peter Nixon | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 5:58 pm | #

‘How many babies have you adopted?’

the obvious response that comes immediately to mind is:

"how many babies have you allowed to live and made available for me to adopt???"
ash | 04.28.04 - 6:06 pm | #

Jay, I can't claim to know about the whole global south, but I do know about Peru, where I collected extensive depositions on videotape from indigenous women who were forcibly sterilized - not by their awful husbands but by their own governments who decided they should not have any more children.

Or in some cases, other women who went to deliver children at government clinics and were inserted with IUDs without their knowledge or consent immediately post-partum. They only found about it years later when they went to private clinics run by NGOs to find out why they couldn't have any more children and why they were bleeding so often (from the IUDs that did not fit).

The point is that is that reproductive tyranny in at least one part of the developing world has NOT come from anyone who favors children, rather from people and government who explicitly do not.
David Morrison | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 7:17 pm | #

If pro-lifers stuck stickers to the signs of pro-aborts the reaction would be much different...

I am grateful for the Doctor's courage! It takes strength to stand up to an angry mob.
Donna | Homepage | 04.28.04 - 8:38 pm | #

"You just can't look at the incidence data and say abortion is the cause. Correlation is not causation."

I agree, David, but the point is that there are so many scientists who have found there is a link in abortion's **increasing the risk factors** for breast cancer. In some cases by double or more.

The quote that got me most was by Dr. Janet Daling (who is pro-choice), in an 1994 NCI Journal: "If politics gets involved in science, it will really hold back the progress we make. I have three sisters with breast cancer, and I resent people messing with the scientific data to further their own agenda, be they pro-choice or pro-life. I would have loved to have found no association between breast cancer and abortion, but our research is rock solid, and our data is accurate. It's not a matter of believing. It's a matter of what is."
Annie Banno | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 8:57 am | #

Sorry, that wasn't David, but Peter who said the above...
Annie Banno | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 8:57 am | #

Right on, Peter. Studies that have shown any kinds of links are, for the most part, rife with poor methodology, or are meta-analyses of poorly-conducted studies. The Daling study is the one exception I've seen, but that's just one study, and wasn't particularly conclusive ("there might be a link" is not great science).

It'd be a relief to have "Dr." Messe out of the profession, because any medical doctor who believes something so sketchy to be absolutely true has lost sight of good science and is not practicing in patients' best interests, but in his own.
Bree | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 2:46 pm | #

Bree, what a blessing it would be if it turns out that you are right that abortion does not increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
Emily | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 5:40 pm | #

"studies [showing a link are] for the most part, rife with poor methodology, or are meta-analyses of poorly-conducted studies." I'd be interested to see your studies that say this, Bree.
Annie Banno | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 5:45 pm | #

I'm aware of the Daling study and from my brief look at it awhile back, it seemed to be a reasonable design. But I think some pro-life folks have placed too much weight on it. My comments about correlation not being causation were in reference to the use of pre/post 1973 population studies of abortion, not all studies of the abortion-breast cancer link.

Here's the thing: The only way that you will ever get physicians to talk about particular health risks of abortion with their patients is if they believe those risks are real. Docs tend to be a skeptical bunch and it takes lots of studies done by folks without obvious axes to grind to convince them to change their practice. Daling certainly falls into this category, but there are others that don't. Credibility with peers is everything in medicine. Docs take practice cues from well-respected peers, not from outsiders or legislators. For good or for ill, that's the reality.
Peter Nixon | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 6:45 pm | #

(cont.)

My point is not to support or refute the view that there is an abortion-breast cancer link. Rather it is to suggest that those wishing to 'make the case' to physicians that they should discuss such a risk with their patients need to make sure their arguments are methodologically bulletproof. Simply citing the number of studies in your favor may interest the general public, but it cuts no ice with most docs I know.

I don't want all this to sound harsh. But trying to change MD practice patterns is what I do for a living and it is not easy.
Peter Nixon | Homepage | 04.29.04 - 6:55 pm | #

Planned Parenthood says that there is no credible evidence demonstrating a link between abortion and breast cancer.

Rebutting Anti-Choice Claims About Abortion And Breast Cancer

If Planned Parenthood says it, that's good enough for me.
Dan | 04.29.04 - 10:32 pm | #

One maxim I usually observe in debateing is to distrust any statement which comes directly after the words "studies have shown...". It is overly general, evasive, vague and in most cases, the people who use it either can't be bothered to research or are bluffing for the fact that there have been no studies or evidence. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Studies have shown that you should ask around and look into "studies" before believing them. Annie is right.
Jonathan Lee | Homepage | 04.30.04 - 12:59 am | #

You got to make your choice, don't tell me I cant make mine (Which I did, and I thank god for it every day.)

Last night we had a patient miscarry at 14 weeks. He was a little boy. He was a little longer than the palm of my hand and weighed a bit over an ounce. His mother was most certainly not thanking God. She was mourning the loss of her son, who she never got to know.

Jay-I'm sorry that you thank God for the death of your child. I can't comprehend that. But I will pray for you and your little one.
JM | 04.30.04 - 8:44 am | #

Those that say,
"I really wouldn't like to bring a child into this awful world..." are the ones that SHOULD be having children...

Just a thought.

KF | 05.05.04 - 6:07 am | #