Cabinet minister Eric Abetz says his views on any link between abortion and breast cancer have been misrepresented in media reports.
“Media reports that I have drawn or believe there is a link between abortion and breast cancer are incorrect,” he said in a statement today.
Senator Abetz claims he was cut off during an interview last night on the Network Ten program The Project. During the program, he was quizzed about his involvement with the World Congress of Families event in Melbourne this month.
Panellist Mia Freedman asked Senator Abetz if he agreed with one of the conference speakers, who had promoted the “factually incorrect” statement that abortion leads to breast cancer.
Senator Abetz responded by saying: “I think the studies, and I think they date back from the 1950s, assert that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer.”
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The Australian Medical Association says there is no evidence of a link and the senator appeared to be relying on material from the 1950s.
It’s also expressed concern about government members involving themselves in events such as the congress.
“I think it’s very dangerous when senior members of government get involved in these types of conferences and give credence to topics that have no scientific merit and which really can be dangerous in terms of the health of women,” AMA president, Associate Professor Brian Owler said.
But Senator Abetz said he’d “studiously avoided” drawing any link between abortion and breast cancer during his interview.
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“(I) was cut off before being able to acknowledge that Dr Angela Lanfranchi’s views on this topic were not the accepted medical view,” he said.
“As I pointed out, I am associating myself with the Families Conference – the broad aims of which I support. This does not mean that I endorse the views of every single speaker.”
But he also acknowledged Dr Lanfranchi’s professional history in his statement, noting she was a breast cancer surgeon, and the surgical co-director of the Sanofi-Aventis Breast Care Centre and the Steeplechase Cancer Centre in New Jersey.
He said Dr Lanfranchi had the right to free speech in Australia, and the AMA had the right to disagree with her.
In June, Queensland MP Freya Ostapovitch used a speech to parliament to say abortion increased the risk of breast cancer.
The Liberal National Party member cited Chinese researcher Dr Yubei Huang, who last year released a controversial paper arguing that induced abortions raised the risk of breast cancer by 44 per cent.
“The more induced abortions a woman had, the greater her risk of breast cancer,” Ms Ostapovitch said.
She also cited six other studies as confirming that induced abortion increased breast cancer risk.
Ms Ostapovitch said she hoped her speech would raise awareness of “some real ways a woman can prevent contracting breast cancer”.
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