Pro-life, anti-cancer. (Making a Difference).

Brita Stream of Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Oregon State University in June with a degree in health development and family sciences. She has long been an articulate advocate for women's health and the unborn via efforts to raise public awareness about the link between abortion and breast cancer.

In a letter published in the OSU student newspaper The Daily Barometer on February 12th, for instance, Miss Stream responded to an earlier missive from a student who claimed that "there is zero medical proof that abortions cause breast cancer" and that "any studies that say so have not been published in legitimate, peer-reviewed medical journals, but rather appear on biased Web sites ... that distort and fabricate information in an unethical attempt to scare and guilt people into being anti-choice."

To the contrary, Miss Stream pointed out, "In 1994, Dr. Janet Daling and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published their findings in the National Cancer Institute's own journal. They stated that there is a 50 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer, before age 45, among women who had one or more induced abortions. Furthermore, there is an 80 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who had any abortions who also have a family history of breast cancer."

She also briefly summarized the physiological aspects of the problem, asserting: "Pregnancy not only prepares a baby for birth, but it also prepares the mother's breasts for the role of feeding the baby. Almost immediately after conception, a mother's ovaries begin secreting increasing quantities of the hormone estrogen. Estrogen's job is to make the cells in the breast proliferate so that the breast will become large enough to feed the baby after birth. It is not until the third trimester that other hormones make these cells differentiate into milk-producing tissues. If this process is interrupted by abortion (or even a live birth) before cell differentiation takes place, a woman is left with more cancer-vulnerable cells in her breast than were there before she got pregnant."

The earlier letter had attempted to bolster the abortionist position by claiming that "only about 1 percent of abortions occur during the third trimester," but Miss Stream noted that the statistic "leaves 99 percent of women having abortions before the cells are able to differentiate," which "translates into a higher risk of breast cancer later in life."

Earlier this year, the health activist entered a beauty contest and was chosen Miss Linn-Benton (Linn and Benton are two Oregon counties). And on July 13th she was crowned Miss Oregon 2002 as reigning Miss America Katie Harman, last year's Miss Oregon, looked on. Miss Stream reaffirmed during the interview portion of the competition that she would use her platform to educate women about the abortion-breast cancer link.

In addition to the title, she received some $13,000 in scholarships, a mink jacket, and a car. She had planned to move to New York City, but will for now remain in Oregon to train for the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City on September 21st.