Martinuk: A Liar and a Cheat

Shame on the Calgary Herald for giving a platform to BIG LIES promulgated by the Fetus Lobby, namely *sigh* the 'abortion causes breast cancer' one again.

A writer named Susan Martinuk says:

This means Komen is raising money to fight breast cancer at the same time as it is handing that money to causes that appear to be a contributing cause to that very disease.

Hm. Martinuk, Martinuk, why does that sound familiar?

Oh yeah. A few weeks ago, I was spanking the scientists for hire that fetus fetishists like Maurice Vellacott rely on to spread their bullshit.

Dr Dawg left a link in the comments to some similar spanking he'd done back in July of 2008. Dr Morgentaler had just received the Order of Canada and the forced birthers were going bonkers.

Dr D. was taking this apart for its bogus science. And oh look, it's by Susan Martinuk.

On the breast cancer lie, Dr D said:

I'm amazed that this old canard still has legs, but once again our reliable JPANDS [Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons] is cited--twice! The US National Cancer Institute isn't buying it; neither is the American Cancer Society. As the ACS puts it, " the public is not well-served by false alarms and at the present time, the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between induced abortion and breast cancer."

I went to the old link to see what Martinuk had to say.

In 1996, a paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health provided the first real evidence of a connection between abortion and breast cancer. Pooled data from 28 different studies demonstrated that women who had abortions had increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 30 per cent.

Subsequent studies supposedly disproved this association, but a 2005 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons paper showed these studies had methodologies that were sufficiently flawed "to invalidate their findings." And, in 2007, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons reported that induced abortion was the risk factor that best predicted the incidence of breast cancer in European women.

I blinked at that a couple of times, then went to the new link again.

But there is an even bigger problem in Komen’s funding of Planned Parenthood. For the past 15 years, there’s been a growing controversy over the link between induced abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. In 1996, a paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health provided the first evidence of a connection between abortion and breast cancer. Pooled data from 28 studies demonstrated that women who had abortions had increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 30 per cent. Subsequent studies supposedly disproved this association, but a 2005 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons paper showed these studies had methodologies that were sufficiently flawed “to invalidate their findings.” And, in 2007, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons reported that induced abortion was the risk factor that best predicted the incidence of breast cancer in European women.

Throw in a couple of new sentences, and presto! A timely article with all the same old discredited crap in it.

So, double shame on the Calgary Herald. Once for printing the crap. Twice for printing -- and presumably paying for -- the same crap three and a half years later.

But really, how surprised should we be that a lying liar like Martinuk is also a cheat?