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April 7, 2008
Web site censorship on world's largest database on reproductive health
Late last week, news broke that the world’s largest reproductive health database blocked users from searching for topics related to abortion. Thankfully, Michael J. Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, issued a statement on Friday in which he said abortion had been restored to the list of searchable terms. He also said he had launched an inquiry into this matter:
… [I] have directed that the POPLINE administrators restore "abortion" as a search term immediately. I will also launch an inquiry to determine why this change occurred.The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and not its restriction.
NARAL Pro-Choice America applauded Dean Klag’s decision and looks forward to hearing how and why such interference happened in the first place. Ted Miller, NARAL Pro-Choice America’s communications director, was quoted in Saturday’s New York Times saying:
The public has a right to know why someone would censor relevant medical information. The Bush administration has politicized science as part of an ideological agenda. So it’s important to know if that occurred here.
The concern over political interference in such a decision is an unfortunate reality with the Bush administration. Since his first months in office, President Bush and his administration have politicized public health and subverted science in favor of an ideological agenda on a range of health issues. NARAL Pro-Choice America has catalogued the administration's actions here, so be sure take a look.
Posted by Molly at April 7, 2008 11:31 AM
Comments
This administration is disgusting. As always.
Posted by: Kirsten at April 10, 2008 4:49 PM
hi
Posted by: molly at April 10, 2008 5:54 PM