Can abortion raise breast cancer risk?

Its discovery of an apparent link between terminations and cancer are sure to be a factor when MPs debate changing the abortion laws later this year.

A report in a respected American medical journal, predicts a dramatic rise in breast cancer among those who have had abortions before giving birth to their first child.

Cases in England and Wales will soar from 39,229 a year in 2004 to 65,252 in 2025, it says, with rising abortion rates a major reason.

Earlier research has indicated that abortion raises the risk of breast cancer by as much as 30 per cent, although a series of other studies have rejected claims of a link.

Labour MPs Claire Curtis-Thomas and Geraldine Smith said last night they intended to speak on the matter when Parliament debates the new Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, to be included in the Queen's Speech next month.

Miss Smith said: "This needs to be investigated properly. It is just another example of the possible physical repercussions women face.

"Women sometimes enter into an abortion quite lightly and in some cases it is being used as a form of birth control.

"We know there are psychological repercussions and it is now being shown that there are physical repercussions."

Pro-choice MPs plan to use the Bill to further liberalise the 1967 abortion law by scrapping the need for two doctors to approve an abortion. Anti-abortion MPs hope to slash the upper limit for termination from 24 to 12 or 13 weeks.

The latest evidence of an abortion-breast cancer link is published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Patrick Carroll of the Pension and Population Research Institute in London used respected modelling techniques to predict future trends.

He said countries with higher abortion rates, such as England and Wales, could expect a substantial increase in breast cancer incidence.

Michaela Aston of the anti-abortion group Life said: "All women have the right to know about the consequences of abortion.

"We hope the growing evidence of the link will encourage more researchers to invest time in properly analysing the evidence."

Researchers say breast cancer is caused by high levels of oestradiol, a hormone that stimulates breast growth during pregnancy.

Its effects are minimised in women who take their pregnancy to full term but remain at dangerous levels in those who abort.

Scientific opinion is divided, however. In 2004 an international study led by Oxford University concluded that having an abortion does not heighten the risk of breast cancer.

There has been an 80 per cent increase in the rate of breast cancer since 1971, at the same time as the number of abortions rose from 18,000 a year to nearly 200,000.

Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK said last night: "Women should not be anxious about the suggested link between abortion and breast cancer.

"A number of large independent studies - including a recent re-analysis of data from 53 studies - have found no evidence of a link."