Cancer and birth control

Did you know that oral contraceptives are classified as a Type 1 carcinogen? No? You're in the majority. This is not widely publicized information - in fact, it has hardly been publicized at all.

Oral contraceptives taken by pre-menopausal women have been found to increase their risk of breast cancer by an average of 44 percent. No, that is not a typo. The medical journal of the Mayo Clinic published this interesting bit of information last October. The article examined the findings of 23 international studies, conducted between 1980 to 2002.

This is not a result that can be discounted. One or two studies can be debatable. Twenty-three, over as many years, held all over the world, works out to a pretty reliable fact.

In an age when breast cancer is the leading cancer in women, you can hardly walk down the street without seeing someone in a "save the hooters" tee-shirt, or noticing a pink ribbon on a car, or reading a billboard advertising a breast cancer awareness/fundraising walk. This is a good thing. Cancer is an evil part of this world and I am heartily supportive of efforts against it. But we're shooting ourself in the foot (breast?) if we "walk for awareness" yet suppress information which we find inconvenient.

Thanks to Touchstone's Pro-Life Update for bringing this information to my attention.