Pregnancy centers respond to critical congressional report

    PORTLAND — A local network of pregnancy resource centers is countering a congressional report issued last month that criticized such centers nationally.
    Women who consult with pregnancy resource centers often get misleading information about the health risks associated with having an abortion, according to a report issued July17 by Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.
    Congressional aides, posing as pregnant 17-year-olds, phoned 25 pregnancy centers that have received some federal funding over the past five years.
    The aides were routinely told of increased risk for cancer, infertility and stress disorders, said the report, which was prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
    Only a small fraction of the more than 4,000 pregnancy clinics nationwide get any federal funding, mostly for promoting sexual abstinence. With a few exceptions, the federal government doesn't give money specifically for the counseling operations, but Waxman's staff said 25 centers got “capacity building grants.” Thus, Waxman said, they should be held accountable for the information they dispense.
    Of 25 centers called, two could not be reached. Eight told the caller abortion increases breast cancer risk, the report said.
    Care Net, an umbrella group for evangelical pregnancy centers across the country, instructs its affiliates to tell callers there is a possibility that abortion can lead to greater risk of breast cancer, according to Molly Ford, an official with the organization. She said several studies say it does, and several that say it doesn’t.
    Jacquie Guthrie, director of services for Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland, defended her agency’s work. “Portland Pregnancy Resource Centers strive to help meet the needs of our clients by giving them accurate and complete information so that they may make an informed decision concerning their possible pregnancy. We would be negligent if we did not inform them that there are comprehensive studies that link abortion and breast cancer risk,” she said.
    Guthrie said a 1996 report published by the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health looked at 23 studies and found abortion increases breast cancer risk by 30 percent. Biochemist Joel Brind of Baruch College of the City University of New York says abortion exposes women to high levels of estrogen and affects the breast in a negative way, allowing a greater chance of contracting breast cancer.
   “Not all in the community agree, however. We allow our clients to make their own decision,” said Guthrie.