Monday, July 17, 2006

Women who consult with pregnancy resource centers often get misleading information about the health risks associated with having an abortion, according to a report issued Monday by Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.

Congressional aides, posing as pregnant 17-year-olds, called 25 pregnancy centers that have received some federal funding over the past five years.

The aides were routinely told of increased risk for cancer, infertility and stress disorders, said the report, which was prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Only a small fraction of the more than 4,000 pregnancy clinics nationwide get any federal funding, mostly for promoting sexual abstinence.

With a few exceptions, the federal government doesn't give money specifically for the counseling operations, but Waxman's staff said 25 centers got ''capacity building grants.'' Thus, Waxman said, they should be held accountable for the information they dispense.

Of the 25 centers called, two could not be reached. Eight told the caller that abortion leads to a greater risk of breast cancer, the report said.

Care Net, an umbrella group for evangelical pregnancy centers across the country, instructs its affiliates to tell callers there is a possibility that abortion can lead to greater risk of breast cancer, according to Molly Ford, an official with the organization. She said there have been several studies that say it does, and several that say it doesn't.

''I know the report is wanting to say that it's conclusive, but it isn't,'' Ford said.

The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society agree that concerns about breast cancer should not influence a women's decision about abortion.

See the NAF (National Abortion Federation) website for further analysis of the breast cancer studies.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, published in 1997, induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer, based upon a review of the study in Denmark of 1.5 million women.

Molly joined the Care Net team in 2006 to assist the Vice President of Communications with the expanding responsibilities of the department. She serves as web editor for the corporate website and is a regular contributor to the Center of Tomorrow Journal, Care Net’s leading publication.

In the spring of 2004, Molly participated in the Witherspoon Fellowship, an academic internship program under the direction of the Family Research Council. She spent the following summer working on Capitol Hill for Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte.

She graduated from Liberty University in May of 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in government and history and spent several months working as an associate for Jerry Falwell Ministries and the Helms School of Government before accepting a position as Communications Manager for the American Conservative Union, the nation’s oldest conservative lobbying group.