The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is considering making a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over a Mail on Sunday story which claims the college believes that having an abortion can increase a woman's chances of developing breast cancer.

The college is incensed by the front page story, which it describes as "very inaccurate" and "the worst kind of journalism".

"To say we have 'agreed there is a link' is completely false," said Allan Templeton, the college's honorary secretary and chairman of its guidelines development committee. "This story will cause great anxiety, and we probably need to go to the Press Complaints Commission because it is totally inappropriate."

The newspaper claimed that, after analysing US research, based on 28 separate studies, "the RCOG has agreed there is a risk of developing cancer after a termination".

Millions of women would be warned by their doctors of the "worrying link", and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service - the biggest provider of abortions in the country - would echo this anxiety.

Some 180,000 terminations are conducted each year in England and Wales and 12,000 in Scotland, with at least a third of all women having an abortion by the time they reach 45.

But yesterday, the royal college said that, after assessing two reviews of all the available research on the subject, it was still not satisfied there was a link.

"We concluded that the evidence as it stood was inconclusive, that there was no evidence definitely pointing towards a link and that, on the other hand, there was much evidence that suggested there was no link at all," said Professor Templeton.

The Mail on Sunday's story had been based on research, conducted by Joel Brind of the City University of New York, which suggested that women who terminate pregnancies run a 30% greater chance of developing breast cancer.

But Prof Templeton cast doubt on the validity of this work, since it relied on case control studies in which women are required to be honest about whether they had had an abortion.

Separate research has found that women with breast cancer are more likely to admit to having had an abortion, in the hope of shedding light on a possible cause, than healthier women, who are more preoccupied with stigma.

In contrast, studies based on linking national registers of induced abortion with instances of breast cancer were less open to bias, said Prof Templeton. "Two such studies have not shown any significant association," he added.

He continued: "The newspaper has taken one study out of context of the rest of the evidence ... When only those studies least susceptible to bias are included, the evidence suggests that induced abortion does not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer in later life."

The consultant obstetrician also dismissed the newspaper's claims that, while pregnancy protects a woman from breast cancer, having an abortion deals a "hormonal blow" by exposing immature breast cells to carcinogens.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which sees 50,000 women a year, said it was "infuriated" by the claims made in the newspaper.

"This is dishonest journalism and we would certainly support the royal college in pursuing a complaint," a spokeswoman, Ann Ferudi, said.