No Pink Ribbon in 2007 ABC Campaign
By Karen Young

LifeCanada’s third national campaign alerting the public to the link between abortion and breast cancer is underway through the month of October to mark “Breast Cancer Awareness” month. Educational prolife groups in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick have sponsored local billboard and transit shelter ads. Groups in Newfoundland, British Columbia and Ontario have organized advertisements in local newspapers. The ads depict a serious-faced young woman, with the question “why wasn’t I told” above a link directing viewers to visit www.abortionbreastcancer.ca for further information. This year, the ad is missing the loop of pinkish ribbon that helped identify abortion as a contributing cause for breast cancer in past campaigns.

The first campaign in 2005 led to complaints from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation over LifeCanada’s use of the ribbon on the billboards. A CBCF representative told CBC News that the billboards were “misleading”, and suggested the use of the pink ribbon was a trademark infringement, despite universal recognition of the symbol as an indicator of breast cancer awareness.

While no Canadian trademark on the pink ribbon was in place at the time, the CBCF has since received trademark approval for “Pink Ribbon Canada”, with several additional “pink ribbon” trademark applications in process, according to the Canadian Intellectual Property Offi ce. In light of these developments, LifeCanada decided to remove the pink ribbon from the ad designs for this year’s campaign.

More than 50 epidemiological studies from around the world support a 30% increased risk of breast cancer for women who have had an abortion. In the fall of 2006, then-executive director of LifeCanada Carroll Rees invited the various breast cancer research organizations to meet with herself and Dr. Angela Lanfranchi to discuss the research on the link between abortion and breast cancer. In early 2007, a representative from the CBCF responded to the invitation with a request for LifeCanada to submit research on the link. We are still awaiting a response.

The CBCF’s annual ‘Run for the Cure’ raised 26.5 million dollars in 2007, with 170,000 people from across Canada participating in the event. The CBCF claims to fund “some of the most-relevant breast cancer research programs” in the country, according to the organization’s website. Research into the link between breast cancer and abortion is unfortunately not included among those programs.

Karen Young is the office manager at LifeCanada.