'PROACTIVE' CHOICE: Angelina Jolie Says She Had Double Mastectomy

Published May 14, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  Actress Angelina Jolie arrives at the 68th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, January 16, 2011. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) (GOLDENGLOBES-ARRIVALS) - RTXWNST

Angelina Jolie says she underwent a preventive double mastectomy earlier this year because she carries a gene that increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

In a New York Times article published late Monday, Jolie says she carries the "faulty" BRCA1 gene. She writes that the risk of developing cancer varies, but doctors estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. 

Jolie, whose mother died at age 56 after a long battle with cancer, says she decided to have the preventive mastectomy to be "proactive" for the sake of her six children with her partner, Brad Pitt.

"Today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action," Jolie writes.

Jolie says she began the process on Feb. 2 and it took three months for her to fully recover. She says she is sharing her story to encourage other women who may not be informed about the procedure and their options.

"I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy," she writes. "But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."

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Bombing victim's tough choice: Keep damaged foot or amputate lower leg

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  Heather Abbott, of Newport, R.I., responds to questions from reporters during a news conference at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. Abbott underwent a below the knee amputation during surgery on her left leg following injuries she sustained at the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15.AP Photo/Steven Senne

A week after a Boston Marathon bomb put Heather Abbott in a local hospital, the Rhode Island woman faced a difficult decision: try to keep her badly wounded foot, or have her leg amputated below the knee.

She picked the second option, viewing life with a prosthesis as the most assured path back to the active lifestyle she lived before the April 15 bombings. The 38-year-old said she likes to run and take aerobic and Zumba classes. She wanted to try "yoga paddle boarding" this summer.

She now has her sights set on next year.

"I really think I'm going to be able to live my life in a normal way, eventually, when I get that permanent prosthesis," Abbott said, speaking at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Addressing media Thursday from a bed wheeled into a hospital conference center, Ms. Abbott was also clear-eyed about the challenges of rehabilitation and the pain she may endure along the way. Additionally, she said has been focused on her recovery and not news about the bombing suspects—Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, who died following a shootout with the police last week.

"I haven't thought much about them at all," Abbott said. "I don't even know how to pronounce their names."

The two bombs on Monday injured 264 people, according to the Boston Public Health Commission, and led more than a dozen, including Abbott, to endure amputations. She is one of the most recent people to join that list, highlighting the tenuous situation some patients have faced following efforts to save damaged limbs.

A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital also underwent an amputation within the last week, a spokesman said.

In Abbott's case, she needed vascular repair to try to restore blood flow to her foot, and follow-up evaluations indicated she still had to consider the option to amputate. Doctors always try to leave this up to patients, said Eric Bluman, Abbott's orthopedic surgeon, but they also explained the potential limitations of a foot that may never heal.

Meantime, the hospital also introduced the patient to other amputees, including war veterans, to give Abbott a view into her possible future.

With a "very badly mangled" foot, she said, she wouldn't be able to live the lifestyle she did before the injury.

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'POLITICAL RULING'? Sparks Fly as Judge Butts In on School Choice Bill

An Alabama judge has blocked the signing of a hotly contested education bill that has divided the state Legislature. Democrats are heralding the decision as a victory but state GOP leaders say the bill was passed fair and square and say the judicial branch needs to butt out of the legislative process.

Circuit Judge Charles Price scheduled a hearing for mid-March on the issue and barred state lawmakers from sending the bill to the governor for his signature before the hearing. Gov. Robert Bentley had said he would sign the bill. 

The bill would give parents zoned for “failing” schools an income tax credit to help pay for tuition at a private school or other public school. But the Alabama Education Association filed a lawsuit Monday night seeking to stop it. The teachers union group argues that the Republican majority bypassed state rules when the tax credit program was tacked on the bill in a conference committee -- with little discussion or debate -- and pushed through the legislature. 

Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh called the ruling “judicial activism at its worst” and vowed to take the matter to the state Supreme Court in order to lift the injunction.

“These stalling tactics are a sham by the same special interest elite that have held our state back for far too long,” he said in a statement, adding that there had been no violation of the Open Meetings Act. 

Democrat Sen. Quinton Ross had a different take.

“The judge stood for the integrity of the Legislature and the legislative process,” he said.

When Alabama’s General Assembly session began on Feb. 5, nearly every education group in the state lined up behind the governor and Republican legislative leaders to endorse the plan that would give city and county school boards more flexibility in complying with the state education laws. The AEA and Democratic lawmakers opposed the bill citing concerns over teacher tenure laws.

The House and Senate then went on to pass different versions of the bill, prompting the formation of a GOP-dominated conference committee to come up with a compromise. The committee used its time to triple the bill’s size by adding tax credits for parents who move their children from failing public school to another public, private or parochial school.

Democrats claimed they were hoodwinked by Republicans who used a last-minute bait-and-switch tactic to push their plan through.

The House approved the bill 51-26 and the Senate 22-11 along party lines.

Alabama’s governor told reporters he didn’t talk with state school superintendents about retooling the legislation at the last minute because they would have tried to kill it.

“Take away all of this trust stuff. Take away all of these folks that are upset. I don’t care. Let me tell you what I care about. I care about those children who are failing in those schools and they have no way out,” Bentley said Friday.

House Speaker Mike Hubbard called the ruling “a ridiculous unconstitutional overreach” and a “patently political ruling.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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