SARAH PALIN

ISSUES
Abortion
Anchorage Daily News Editorial: Palin Has “Extreme Anti-Abortion Views.” The Anchorage Daily
News wrote in an editorial, “Alaskans will also have to decide whether her extreme anti-abortion views
and other socially conservative positions square with Alaska's generally libertarian approach to those
issues.” [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), 8/24/06]
Palin Moderating Her Abortion Stance? The Anchorage Daily News wrote, “Palin said last month that
no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child.” [Anchorage Daily News
(Alaska), 8/6/06]
Palin Called Herself as “Pro-Life As Any Candidate Can Be” But Supports Contraception. “In
2002, when she was running for lieutenant governor, Palin sent an e-mail to the anti-abortion Alaska
Right to Life Board saying she was as ‘pro-life as any candidate can be’ and has ‘adamantly supported our
cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion.’ Palin said last month that no woman
should have to choose between her career, education and her child. She is pro-contraception and said
she’s a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life. ‘I believe in the
strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life,’ she said.” [Anchorage Daily News
(Alaska), 8/6/06]
Palin is a Member of Feminists for Life, A Group That Says Abortion Increases the Risk of
Miscarriage, Cancer, and Compares Abortion to the Tuskegee Trials. According to the Anchorage
Daily News, Palin “said she's a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for
Life.” Feminists for Life writes on its website, “If you choose to have an abortion, even if it's at an early
stage of pregnancy, the risks associated with this choice include bleeding, injury to the bowel, injury to
the urinary tract, infection, and possible problems with having children in the future. Obviously, the
further along in the pregnancy you are, the higher your chances are to have these types of problems.” The
site also says, “recently there have been reports that link breast cancer with abortion. Since abortion has
been legal for over 20 years, and sometimes it takes 20 to 30 years for a cancer to develop, this link is just
starting to surface. More research is needed, especially since so many women have abortions every year
coupled with the fact that so many women also die from breast cancer.” The site adds, “We are reminded
that in the not-so-distant past American citizens were "tricked" into participating in research experiments
being performed by doctors and other people in the health industry…The Tuskegee experiment is a grim
reminder that even though doctors and other people connected with the medical profession have been
granted a great deal of trust and privilege in our society, there have been times when that trust was
betrayed and innocent citizens were caused irreparable harm.” [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), 8/6/06;
http://www.feministsforlife.org/resources/realrepr.htm]
• National Cancer Institute: It Is “Well-Established” That “Abortion is Not Associated With
an Increase In Breast Cancer Risk.” There is a medical consensus that there is no causal
relationship between abortion and breast cancer. This consensus emerged after several welldesigned
studies, the largest of which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in
1997, found no indication of increased risk of breast cancer following an induced abortion. In
2002, the Bush Administration edited a National Cancer Institute website to suggest that there was
still an open scientific question about whether having an abortion might lead to breast cancer.
After members of Congress protested the change, the National Cancer Institute convened a three-