All 50 states, however, have laws or constitutional provisions requiring their state legislatures to use Federal census data in drawing legislative district boundaries. Articles about the Court' s decsion appeared on the front page of The New York Times and other national newspapers. Although more American women die each year of heart disease and lung cancer, there appears to be a universal dread of breast cancer. This dread of breast cancer apparently arises from the disfiguring surgery followed by an extended course of chemotherapy that is the usual course of treatment for the disease. In contrast, heart disease sounds like something women can live with.
Women also associate breast cancer with dying young.
According to the article, early deaths among family and friends loom large in many women's memories. Well-meaning public health campaigns may have made some of the fears even worse than they should be. The prediction that one in eight women in the United States will evelop breast cancer is one of the most quoted and, to many women, one of the most alarming statistics ever promoted by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society. The number is technically correct. But it is also confusing and misleading.