HL Deb 16 January 2002 vol 630 c159WA
Lord Alton of Liverpool

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 17 December (WA 21), on what basis they conclude that Patrick Carroll's study does not provide evidence of a casual link between induced abortion and breast cancer. [HL2152]

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The analysis makes many assumptions and is a simplistic association between a rising incidence of breast cancer and the use of induced abortion but the analysis does not show this relationship to be causal. The potential link between induced abortion and subsequent breast cancer requires a more sophisticated study that would consider the effect of other risk factors and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund report will provide this.