Abortion opponents love to use misinformation to scare women away from choosing abortion. And one of their favorites has been that having an abortion increases a woman's risk of breast cancer—they have even passed legislation in several states requiring this untruth to be told to women considering abortion. Imagine their dismay when a new study came out last week that disproves the link between abortion and breast cancer.

The Harvard study (published in the Archives of Internal Medicine) followed 105,716 women from 1993 to 2003 and found that neither abortion nor miscarriage is associated with breast cancer. From The New York Times:

The scientists found no difference in breast cancer incidence between the women who had had spontaneous or induced abortions and those who had not. Breast cancer incidence did not differ among women who had had an induced or spontaneous abortion before or after their first birth, or who had had no abortion at all.

One dissenter complained that the study should have focused only on early abortions so that there was enough time for breast cancer to develop. The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, an anti-abortion advocacy organization, also called the study "seriously flawed" and called for more follow-up time after abortions. (This is from the same group whose article against contraception is called "Girls on steroids!")

However, the study's lead author refutes this criticism:

Dr. Michels said that most of the abortions occurred more than 10 years before the breast cancer diagnosis, and that analyzing only the earliest abortions made no difference in the results.

The opposition's other argument is that the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded this study, after already previously concluding that there is no link between breast cancer and abortion, based on other studies. The coalition's president:

"So why has the NCI continued to spend millions of dollars to fund studies on the abortion-cancer link?" asked Malec. "Clearly, its scientists must either suspect a link or know that it exists."

This is a pretty weak argument, but let's consider this for a minute. Considering all of the time and money the anti-abortion & anti-contraception movement puts into spreading misinformation and fighting science, it's no wonder scientists continue to explore this issue. And besides, medicine is an ever evolving field—should we simply accept past research and not continue to expand on it?

Despite credible, medically-accurate studies on reproductive health, the right-wingers continue to try to discredit science and push their ideology—regardless of the truth.

For more information on breast cancer & abortion, check out these resources:

• RH Reality Check's Fact v. Fiction: Abortion Causes a Variety of Health Complications

• National Abortion Federation

• Feminist Women's Health Center

• National Cancer Institute