Childbearing makes women healthier

The article by Karen Malec linked abortion to breast cancer risk. A pamphlet published by the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute has helped me understand the connection between abortion and breast cancer. The pamphlet can be accessed online at www.bcpinstitute.org.

From infancy to puberty, from puberty to adulthood, from no pregnancies to a full term pregnancy, a woman's breast is in the process of maturation. Breast tissue develops with the influence of an amazing network of hormones.

When a woman conceives a baby, hormones cause the breast to grow, increasing lobules that will produce milk. The breast lobules continue to develop throughout pregnancy. By the end of the third trimester 85 percent of the breast tissue has matured to cancer resistant lobules.

Breast-feeding influences the hormonal balance in a woman's body and further reduces the risk of breast cancer. It is healthy for a woman to go through the full cycle of pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding. This cycle protects breast tissue cells from mutation to cancer cells. When pregnancy is abruptly interrupted, cells are more susceptible to mutation.

There are a number factors that play a part in breast cancer. Diet and lifestyle choices have an effect. Some women are more susceptible due to their genetic makeup. Abortion is one more factor.

Breast cancer has been increasing at an alarming rate. When we look back a couple of generations breast cancer was infrequent. My grandmother had five full-term babies. My husband's grandmother gave birth to 11 babies. Both women lived long, ninety-one and ninety-four years.

Although our culture tends to view childbirth with fear, childbirth is a normal physiological process that provides health benefits to women.

Carol Van Der Woude

Hoffman Estates