The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation is upset that an anti-abortion
group is linking the procedure to breast cancer, and appropriating the
foundation's pink ribbon trademark to do it.
Life Canada has put up three billboards in Alberta that display a
large pink ribbon and the words "stop the cover up" along with the
address of a website that claims that having an abortion is a factor
in getting breast cancer.
Jim Hudson, with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, says the
website is misleading, and that they are looking at whether Life
Canada has infringed on their trademark by using the pink ribbon.
"The best piece of evidence that's been published was actually quite a
large, 2004 Oxford study that is a re-analysis from 53 studies,
including 83,000 women from 16 countries," Hudson said. "And they
concluded abortion did not increase a woman's risk."
Joanne Byfield, president of Life Canada and who also belongs to
Pro-Life Alberta, says more than 70 studies "have looked at the
relationship between the two and about 80 per cent of those studies
have shown some sort of link between the two."
Hudson says Life Canada is sending the wrong message to women.
"We are concerned about this campaign, the evidence that they're
presenting about a link between abortion and breast cancer is not what
we would accept as the current evidence for a relationship between
abortion and breast cancer," he said.
The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation estimates that 21,600 women will
be diagnosed with the disease this year, and about 5,300 will die from
it. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women,
and the second-most deadly, after lung cancer.
October is breast cancer awareness month, following the annual CIBC
Run for the Cure fundraising event held in September. In August,
almost 2,300 people participated in the Calgary Weekend to End Breast
Cancer 60-kilometre walk-a-thon, which raised more than $7 million.
www.calgary.cbc.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment