UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
CENSORSHIP:
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
This is the first article that I have come across about this issue that is
beyond the world of discussion groups and weblogs and from a known
technology news source, namely Wired. One wonders when the Washington
Posts and New York Times of this country and beyond will awake to this
developing news story. I am also delighted to see that Wired is indexing
this story under the word censorship as I have in my posting about this
outrage also used this term.
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
By Sarah Lai Stirland April 03, 2008 | 5:55:57 PM
Categories: Censorship
<http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/a-government-fu.html>
A U.S. government-funded medical information site that bills itself as the
world's largest database on reproductive health has quietly begun to block
searches on the word "abortion," concealing nearly 25,000 search results.
Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in Maryland. It's funded by the U.S. Agency for
International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of
providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing
nations.
The massive database indexes a broad range of reproductive health
literature, including titles like "Previous abortion and the risk of low
birth weight and preterm births," and "Abortion in the United States:
Incidence and access to services, 2005."
But on Thursday, a search on "abortion" was producing only the message "No
records found by latest query."
Stephen Goldstein, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said he wasn't aware of
the censorship, and couldn't immediately comment.
Under a Reagan-era policy revived by President Bush in 2001, USAID denies
funding to non-governmental organizations that perform abortions, or that
"actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other
nations."
A librarian at the University of California at San Francisco noticed the
new censorship on Monday, while carrying out a routine research request on
behalf of academics and researchers at the university. The search term had
functioned properly as of January.
Puzzled, she contacted the manager of the database, Johns Hopkins' Debbie
Dickson, who replied in an April 1st e-mail that the university had
recently begun blocking the search term because the database received
federal funding.
--------------------------------------
The complete article may be read at the URL above.
Also of possible interest:
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION:
Government Database Restricting Information On Abortion
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22980>
I also want to personally thank all of the librarians who are posting
views and information regarding this important issue, including the
librrarian who on Monday discovered, checked into and reported on this
matter. It is heartening to see folks in our field providing leadership
in discovering and creating awareness of political censorship of
information and knowledge.
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@temple.edu
Net-Gold
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General Internet & Print Resources
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