“It is criminal that the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has covered up this risk for over a half century.”

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka)—A new study out of Sri Lanka has found that women who had abortions more than tripled their risk of breast cancer.

The study focused on analyzing the association between the duration of breastfeeding and the risk of breast cancer. But the researchers also reported other “significant” risk factors for breast cancer, such as passive smoking and being post-menopausal. The highest of the reported risk factors was abortion.

The researchers found that among women who breastfed for between 12-23 months there was a 66.3% risk reduction in comparison to those who had never breastfed and those who breastfed for between 0 and 11 months. The risk reduction climbed to 87.4% for those who breastfed for 24-35 months and 94% among women who breastfed for 36-47 months.