Cancer: abortion link 'unscientific'

Researchers who have detected a link between abortions and breast cancer have been accused of being unscientific.

Several studies have come to the same conclusion that women who have an abortion ran a far greater risk of developing breast cancer in later life.

The Netherlands Cancer Institute decided to look at the findings again by comparing two groups one healthy, the other with breast cancer each made up of 918 women. There were 36 abortions among the healthy women, but there were 56 abortions reported in the cancer group.

The Dutch researchers discovered that earlier findings failed to take into account the likelihood of women admitting to having had an abortion in the first place. In their study, they found that women from the conservative, Catholic and rural southeastern region of Holland were far less likely to report an abortion than those from the more liberal western districts.