Results tagged “science” from Blog for Choice

What do these two headlines have in common?

Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics

Obama moves to strengthen role of science in policy

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other news outlets have been covering this "wild-and-crazy" phenomenon of the Obama administration keeping ideology out of science and public health. I know it doesn't sound "wild-and-crazy" at face value, but given the last eight years, it's a relatively new occurrence for a president. NARAL Pro-Choice America has an outstanding document that, um, documents President Bush's pattern of putting his anti-choice political ideology into science:

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. President Bush has used all the powers of his presidency to obstruct scientific research, censor factual medical information, and stack scientific advisory committees with right‐wing ideologues.

Medical evidence, not politics, should form the underpinnings of scientific and public-health-related policies. Scientific credentials, not ideology, should govern appointments to scientific advisory committees. The Bush administration's history of censorship, misleading statements, unabashed scientific revisionism, and targeted intrusions into scientific decision‐making processes casts doubt on the credibility of American science and compromises our ability to understand, prevent, and treat diseases. The growing influence of ideology on science is cause for grave concern. Simply put: the Bush administration is playing politics with people's health.

Well, thank goodness those years are over, right?

The Obama administration has indicated their desire to put the science back in... science. Melody C. Barnes, director of Obama's Domestic Policy Council, told the Washington Post:

The president believes that it's particularly important to sign this memorandum so that we can put science and technology back at the heart of pursuing a broad range of national goals.

I hope that this as a sign that other medically-accurate programs such as comprehensive sex education will finally replace the dangerous and disproven "abstinence-only" programs that President Bush and his anti-choice allies were so fond of funding? I'm being quite optimistic right now, but check out what happened last night regarding "abstinence-only" programs.