Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 02:24:12 -0400
From: David P. Dillard <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Information Sources <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: DATABASES : MEDICAL: ABORTION : UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT : CENSORSHIP:
Abortion Returns to POPLINE and Media Coverage of the Events in the POPLINE
Aborting of Searching Abortion
DATABASES : MEDICAL: ABORTION :
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
CENSORSHIP: Abortion Returns to POPLINE and Media Coverage of the
Events in the POPLINE Aborting of Searching Abortion
This post will share a letter from Johns Hopkins regarding the decision to
eliminate searching for the subject term abortion in the POPLINE database that
is funded by the United States Federal government and will also share
citations, links and some excerpts of media and other coverage of the
supression of abortion information from search results in the POPLINE database.
The Letter from Johns Hopkins:
Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Public Health News Center
April 4, 2008
Statement Regarding POPLINE Database
I was informed this morning that the word "abortion" was blocked as a search
term in the POPLINE family planning database administered by the Bloomberg
Schools Center for Communication Programs. POPLINE provides evidence-based
information on reproductive health and family planning and is the worlds
largest database on these issues.
USAID, which funds POPLINE, found two items in the database related to abortion
that did not fit POPLINE criteria. The agency then made an inquiry to POPLINE
administrators. Following this inquiry, the POPLINE administrators at the
Center for Communication Programs made the decision to restrict abortion as a
search term.
I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and 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.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH
Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
For additional information, please contact Tim Parsons at
410-955-7619
or at
[log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------
After this event, I had posts where I had sent notice of the problem with
searching the term abortion on POPLINE, the JOURNET and EDTECH lists, that
indicated that there was no problem so that either the problem had been
corrected or that the original news stories regarding POPLINE had been false.
This is the response that I sent to EDTECH and JOURNET.
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 10:59:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: David P. Dillard <[log in to unmask]>
To: EDTECH Editor-Hogan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT : DATABASES : DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION : CENSORSHIP: U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks
'Abortion']
I got a similar comment, both much appreciated, on JOURNET and sent this
response to update the situation and I am planning a post on Net-Gold soon to
update in more detail, the newer information. Here is the post sent to JOURNET:
References: <[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 09:22:51 -0400
Reply-To: Discussion List for Journalism Education <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Discussion List for Journalism Education <[log in to unmask]>
From: "David P. Dillard" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: DATABASES : MEDICAL: ABORTION : UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
CENSORSHIP: The POPLINE Situation
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
It sure did change, big time.
---------------------------------------
April 4, 2008
Statement Regarding POPLINE Database
I was informed this morning that the word "abortion" was blocked as a
search term in the POPLINE family planning database administered by the
Bloomberg Schools Center for Communication Programs. POPLINE provides
evidence-based information on reproductive health and family planning and
is the worlds largest database on these issues.
<snip>
I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and 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.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH
Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
For additional information, please contact Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or
at [log in to unmask]
<http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2008/popline.org>
---------------------------------------
I also have some posts on Net-Gold and a link in one of these posts to an
additional post of mine regarding this matter sent to the DIG_REF list.
The post I sent on, I believe Friday, I had already discovered before I
started the post that there were 187 records in POPLINE on abortion and I
was getting set to comment about only "politically correct" articles being
returned to the index. At the mid-point of the post, I checked POPLINE
again and the hits for abortion were now over 500 so I quickly aborted my
plan to discuss politically correct in this connection. Before posting,
composition complete, I checked POPLINE again and now there were almost
1,100 hits for the term abortion, they were rebuilding the dictionary file
for the subject heading abortion as I was composing my post! I am
planning another Net-Gold post today sharing some of the content sources
about this censorship story if I can get to it today as there is much
about this story that bears mentioning and citing in the sources extant on
this topic. It can also be noted that as far as I have been able to
discover, this story was discovered by a librarian and was spread in a
couple of days or so on library lists like DIG_REF, LawLib, MedLib and in
a very valuable publication from Gary Price, a librarian, called
ResourceShelf:
ResourceShelf
http://www.resourceshelf.com/
April 5, 2008 at 12:59 am Filed under Search News, Access to Information
As promised, heres an official response on the POPLINE issue that we
posted about on Thursday/Friday.
NOTE FROM THE DEAN
<http://www.resourceshelf.com/2008/04/05/
popline-database-response-from-dean-
johns-hopkins-bloomberg-school-of-public-health/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6439ll>
By the way, Resourceshelf has also heard about Journalism and published a
bit about this field. <g>
<http://www.resourceshelf.com/index.php?s=journalism>
According to Google, there are these hits in ResourceShelf and about
Resourceshelf coverage of journalism:
Web Results 1 - 10 of about 17,000 for resourceshelf and journalism
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=DAUS%2CDAUS%3A2006-11%
2CDAUS%3Aen&q=resourceshelf+and+journalism&btnG=Search>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3vtpy7>
Journalism has also been an occasional topic on the Net-Gold list as well.
Matched Messages 1 - 10 of 671
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/msearch?query=
journalism&submit=Search&charset=windows-1252>
or if Yahoo Groups site search engine is "busy" when you call, a frequent
occurance, there is the record for most of these posts in Google Groups,
an additional Net-Gold archive for the list.
<http://groups.google.com/group/net-gold/search?
group=net-gold&q=journalism&qt_g=Search+this+group>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3vzqvj>
and on the web according to Google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,840 for "net-gold" and journalism and
"temple.edu".
<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22net-gold%22+and+journalism+and+%
22temple.edu%22&hl=en&rls=DAUS,DAUS:2006-11,DAUS:en&filter=0>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/42g9o9>
The posts regarding the POPLINE issue on Net-Gold may located at these
URLs:
DATABASES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
CENSORSHIP:
The POPLINE Situation
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22991>
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION :
CENSORSHIP:
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22981>
UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT :
DATABASES :
DEMOGRAPHY: ISSUES :
MEDICAL: ABORTION:
Government Database Restricting Information On Abortion
WEBBIB0708
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/22980>
Also of possible interest if you have the time:
TIME: CLOCK: RESOURCE: TOOL:
The World Time Server
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/23002>
But if you find yourself too busy at the Blackboard to be dealing with the
Time, this Net-Gold post may help:
EDUCATION: COLLEGE: PROFESSORS :
LIBRARIES: COLLEGE AND ACADEMIC: FACULTY LIAISON :
EDUCATION: TECHNOLOGY:
Using Blackboard and Related Technologies in Library Collaboration with
Faculty in Courses and Course Documentation
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/msearch?
query=blackboard&submit=Search&charset=windows-1252>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3pmc8q>
Other chalk marks on Net-Gold regarding Blackboard:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/msearch?query=
blackboard&submit=Search&charset=windows-1252>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3pmc8q>
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Sincerely,
David Dillard
<snip>
----------------------------------------
Although early last week there was little media coverage of this development
and most of the attention to this change in POPLINE was on the part of
librarian discussion groups, as far as I know, by the end of the week media
coverage did develop and below are some citations and links to some of the
articles in the media. Censorship and suppression of information, in this case
of peer reviewed scholarly publications, is an extremely serious infringement
of the intellectual liberties and freedom of press, speech and ideas of the
members of a democracy. Hence it is critically important to document such a
development for the present and future generations.
Health Database Was Set Up to Ignore Abortion
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: April 5, 2008
The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/us/05popline.html>
WASHINGTON Johns Hopkins University said Friday that it had programmed its
computers to ignore the word abortion in searches of a large, publicly financed
database of information on reproductive health after federal officials raised
questions about two articles in the database. The dean of the Public Health
School lifted the restrictions after learning of them.
A spokesman for the school, Timothy M. Parsons, said the restrictions were
enforced starting in February.
Johns Hopkins manages the population database known as Popline with money from
the Agency for International Development.
Popline is the worlds largest database on reproductive health, with more than
360,000 records and articles on family planning, fertility and sexually
transmitted diseases.
Mr. Parsons said the development agency had expressed concern after finding two
articles about abortion advocacy in the database. The articles, he said, did
not fit database criteria and were removed.
Employees who manage the database instructed their computers to ignore the word
abortion as a search term.
After learning of the restrictions on Friday, the dean, Dr. Michael J. Klag,
said: I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and 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 school is named for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, a Hopkins
alumnus who has given millions of dollars to the university and the school.
Dr. Klag said the school was dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of
knowledge, and not its restriction.
<snip>
Librarians at the Medical Center of the University of California, San
Francisco, expressed concern about the restrictions this week after they had
difficulty retrieving articles from Popline.
In an e-mail response on Tuesday, Johns Hopkins told the librarians that
abortion was no longer a valid search term.
<snip>
Ms. Dickson suggested that instead of using abortion, librarians could use
other terms like fertility control, postconception or pregnancy, unwanted.
----------------------------------------
The Word Abortion Ignored in Search List
By Joseph Collins
21:22, April 5th 2008
E-News 2.0
http://www.enews20.com/news_
The_Word_Abortion_Ignored_in_Search_List_07037.html
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6ooron>
It is said that the Internet is changing every two or four months as a result
of a new content which is being added or shared. This time a new change is
meant to eliminate the word abortion in searches of a large database which
contains information about reproductive health.
This drastic measure came as a result of some questions raised by federal
officials after they have seen certain articles in the database. It was said
that the two articles didn't feet database criteria. Consequently, they were
removed from the websites.
The articles could be found on a database known as Popline, which is financed
by the Agency for International Development. Anyone with an Internet connection
can access this website and read more that 360,000 records and articles on
family planning, fertility and sexually transmitted diseases.
The public has the 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, Ted
Miller, a spokesman for Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group,
told The New York Times.
----------------------------------------
April 5, 2008
Govt. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks "Abortion"
Search Engine Watch
<http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080405-231705>
Lesbian Partner Trip OK'd; Database Bans Abortion
Run Date: 04/05/08
By Matthews and Soguel
WeNews correspondents
(WOMENSENEWS)--
<http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3555/context/archive>
Government Database Restricting Information On Abortion
UPDATE (4.3.08 2:40 PST) From the Radical Reference site:
<http://www.theexperiment.org/?p=2275>
See this blog entry for an alternate search
strategy:http://brassratgirl.livejournal.com/417175.html
Here is the response from POPLINEs Debra L. Dickson:
Yes we did make a change in POPLINE. We recently made all abortion terms stop
words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now. In
addition to the terms youre already using, you could try using Fertility
Control, Postconception. This is the broader term to our Abortion terms and
most records have both in the keyword fields. Also, adding unwanted w2
pregnancy in place of aborti*. We have a keyword Pregnancy, Unwanted and there
are 2517 records with aborti* & unwanted w2 pregnancy.
Update: Your Search for "Abortion" Now Yields Something
Amie Newman, RH Reality Check on April 3, 2008 - 10:00am
Published under: Access to Abortion | censorship | federal funding | Johns
Hopkins | medical database | medical library | women's health news
Amie Newman's blog
The RH Blog <http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/04/03/
your-search-for-abortion-yields-nothing>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/56ay64>
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
By Sarah Lai Stirland April 03, 2008 | 5:55:57 PM
Categories: Censorship
Wired
<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
[Please note that the comments following this article are well worth reading.]
'Abortion' ignored in health database
Published: April 5, 2008 at 6:53 PM
United Press International
<http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/04/05/
abortion_ignored_in_health_database/6282/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3smyzo>
April 04, 2008
Feministing
POPLINE removes 'abortion' as a stop word
It looks like all the attention POPLINE has received from their decision to
omit the term "abortion" from their search engine has been brought to the
attention of the Dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
<http://feministing.com/archives/008951.html>
Why is a Government-Funded Reproductive Health Database Blocking Users from
Searching for Abortion Articles?
Posted by Rachel on April 2, 2008
<http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/
why-is-a-government-funded-reproductive-health-database-
blocking-users-from-searching-for-abortion-articles/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/2kkbax>
The librarian who noted the problem inquired about it, and was informed that it
wasnt a simple technical glitch; the response she received was, We recently
made all abortion terms stop words. As a federally funded project, we decided
this was best for now.
If youre not familiar with stop words, they are typically words like a, an, and
the that are omitted automatically from the search, because they is assumed to
have no added value or meaning. Suffice it to say, its quite unusual for a word
with real meaning to be a stop word, especially one so relevant to the resource
being searched.
The librarian was then advised to do a search for unwanted pregnancy as a
substitute, which ignores the fact that these words are not synonyms, as a
pregnancy can be unwanted but carried to term or desperately wanted but aborted
for various health reasons.
Now, a little digging reveals that the POPLINE folks havent actually removed
the term abortion (or related ones) as subject terms from the citations, or
from their Thesaurus which tells you which subjects appear in the database. If
you know to use the Browse Index* you can still find the term and come up with
almost 25,000 results. However, if you simply enter the word abortion in the
Subject search box, as the instructions directly above the box suggest you
should be able to do, the search returns 0 results. Another work-around is to
enter the search as =Abortion as the Index search would do, and you can still
get the results. Of course, that applies for now, until they realize that the
work-around is there and remove it as well.
Right now, this move is essentially a barrier to your basic search/er - an
advanced searcher might get 25,000 results, while someone just following
directions will get none. As the librarian reporting the problem noted, It is
important to remember that this database is used by both professional searchers
and the public. The average user goes directly to the query box and searches;
they will retrieve nothing when the term abortion is entered. She also notes
that using the advanced options was *not* among the suggestions from POPLINE
personnel in response to her inquiry.
[Links to other blog posts are provided at the end of this article.]
More on the Popline Incident
LIS News
<http://www.lisnews.org/node/29703>
Posted April 5th, 2008 by birdieMedical Politics From CBS News, here are
details of how a librarian discovered the 'global gag rule' removing the word
abortion from the Popline ("population information online" ) database.
Gloria Won, a librarian at the University of California, San Francisco Medical
Center, was one of those who sent e-mails to POPLINE administrators after
having trouble with searches.
Won got this response from POPLINE administrator Debra L. Dickson: "Yes, we did
make a change to POPLINE. We recently made all abortion words stop words. As a
federally funded project, we decided this was best for now."
Popline Has Unlocked Abortion Searches
Posted April 4th, 2008 by Blake LIS News
<http://www.lisnews.org/node/29700>
Friday, April 04, 2008
Popline makes abortion a dirty word
The Galloping Beaver
<http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2008/04/
popline-makes-abortion-dirty-word.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/5k966z>
April 3, 2008...12:40 pm
POPLINE and government barriers to information on controversial topics
Social Justice Librarian
<http://sjlibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/popline-and-government-
barriers-to-information-on-%E2%80%9Ccontroversial%E2%80%9D-topics/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/5z9hno>
April 4, 2008...3:09 pm
POPLINE kerfuffle follow-up
Social Justice Librarian
<http://sjlibrarian.wordpress.com/ 2008/04/04/popline-kerfuffle-follow-up/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/5zo458>
April 4, 2008
Popline blocking searches on abortion
Library Juice
<http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=395>
Access to Abortion Search to be Restored in POPLINE; Johns Hopkins Releases
Statement
Posted by Rachel on April 4, 2008
<http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/access-to-abortion-
search-to-be-restored-in-popline-johns-hopkins-releases-statement/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6q7t8k>
Health Site Blocked 'Abortion' Searches
1 day ago
Associated Press
<http://ap.google.com/article/ ALeqM5jsVvLn-eBWkWAfRJIAdRO-lFgvZAD8VRTIPO1>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6gvfsx>
POPLINE is a free database containing citations and abstracts of scientific
articles, reports and books about population, family planning and related
health issues. It contains nearly 360,000 records.
Loriene Roy, president of the American Library Association, applauded Klag's
action, saying the restriction denied "researchers, students and individuals on
all sides of the issue access to accurate scientific information."
Wayne Shields, president and CEO of the Association of Reproductive Health
Professionals, said in a statement that restricting access to the information
could possibly jeopardize patient care, because it prevented doctors and women
from linking to scientific literature on the topic.
"Removing abortion as a search term on a publicly funded reproductive health
database is clearly a decision driven by ideology and not based on the medical
or scientific needs of the reproductive health professional community the
database exists to serve," Shields said.
On the Net:
POPLINE:
<http://db.jhuccp.org/ics-wpd/popweb/>
Bloomberg School of Public Health:
http://www.jhsph.edu/
U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
By SARAH LAI STIRLAND
April 4, 2008 ABC News
<http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4591373&page=1>
Abortion keyword blocked from public health database after complaint from U.S.
agency
Catholic News Agency
<http://catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12254>
Bush administration policy denies funding to non-governmental organizations
that perform abortions or actively promote abortion as a method of family
planning in other nations.
Sandra Jordan, director of communications in USAIDs office of population and
reproductive health, was unable to identify the two documents that had prompted
the complaint. However, she did say the publications were biased in favor of
abortion rights.
Jordan said that the offices request had been misunderstood, saying database
administrators blocked the word abortion on their own.
"We're glad they're restoring the search function to the site -- the studies
and statistical information are certainly important information to family
planning," she said, according to Wired.com.
A search on abortion produced nearly 25,000 results from the database, but a
search on Thursday resulted in the message No records found by latest query.
The schools dean said in a Friday statement that he would launch an inquiry to
determine why the change occurred.
Hopkins restores access to health site
Limit on word 'abortion' faulted
By Stephanie Desmon | Sun reporter
April 5, 2008
Baltimore Sun
<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/
bal-te.popline05apr05,0,6737683.story>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/55nrt7>
Outcry Over Search Word Ban on Health Site
ToTheCenter.com, NY - Apr 5, 2008
<http://www.tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=4618>
Health & Science
Health Database Blocked Searches on 'Abortion'
by Brenda Wilson
NPR.org, April 4, 2008
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89398211>
No Block Requested
USAID did not ask POPLINE to remove anything from the database, says Sandra
Jordan of the USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health.
"USAID made an inquiry to POPLINE about six weeks ago, when the agency found
information in the database that did not follow criteria that POPLINE has for
the site," Jordan said. "The materials on POPLINE about which USAID made its
inquiries were abortion-advocacy materials."
"Afterward, POPLINE administrators then made the decision to restrict
'abortion' as a search term," she said.
When asked whether USAID requested that POPLINE remove "abortion" as a search
term, Jordan said, "No."
Inquiries started pouring into Hopkins' School of Public Health on Friday, and
shortly afterward, Dean Michael Klag released a statement saying he strongly
disagreed with POPLINE's decision to restrict searches.
"I have ordered that POPLINE administrators restore 'abortion' as a search term
immediately," he said, adding that he would launch an inquiry to find out how
it happened.
Johns Hopkins University Quickly Restores Abortion Search in Health Database
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 6, 2008
<http://www.lifenews.com/state3092.html>
The federal agency, which falls under President Bush's Mexico City Policy
preventing taxpayer funding of groups that promote or perform abortions
overseas, funds the JHU reproductive web site.
Klag appeared to be ready to defy the USAID request to stop the abortion
searches in a statement given to AP.
"I could not disagree more strongly with this decision, and I have directed
that the POPLINE administrators restore 'abortion' as a search term
immediately," Klag said.
After stopping the abortion searches, JHU officials suggested those looking for
abortion topics put in keywords such as "unwanted pregnancy," "fertility
control" and "postconception."
The problems first surfaced when a librarian at the University of California at
San Francisco ran a routine search and found no results on abortion.
Several pro-abortion blogs launched a campaign targeting JHU and USAID after
the news of the search stoppage became public.
Health database programmed to avoid showing abortion articles
By Sue Mueller
Apr 5, 2008 - 9:27:16 AM
Food Consumer.org
<http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/Other_N_ews_51/040509272008_
Health_database_programmed_to_avoid_showing_abortion_articles.shtml>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3qbuyp>
When Abortion becomes Fertility Control, Postconception
Posted April 4th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The CarpetBagger Report
<http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15115.html>
Ironically, the Bush administration policy may inadvertently interfere with
researchers opposed to abortion. As Melissa Just, the library director at a
cancer research institute in California, explained, Even if you were trying to
make an argument to someone that abortion is a bad idea for them whether its a
health risk, or youre concerned about their mental well being, you wouldnt be
able to find articles about your claim. Its shutting off both the pro and the
con access.
Just another reason to look forward to a reality-based presidency.
'Abortion' Back As Possible Search Term In Hopkins Reproductive Health Site
Featured Article
Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 05 Apr 2008 - 13:00 PDT
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/102944.php>
[An extensive group of topical Medical News RSS Feeds are featured on the
Public Health Subject Guide on Temple University Library Subject Guides. Use
the Links at the Top of the Public Health Subject Guide to Access the Topically
Arranged RSS Feeds from Medical News Today and other sources at this URL:
<http://guides.temple.edu/public-health> ]
Popular Public Health School Reinstates "Abortion" On Web Site Search
DOG.FLU.ca
<http://www.dogflu.ca/04062008/07/
popular_public_health_school_reinstates_abortion_on_web_site_search>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/4e6dtu>
Hopkins health site restores 'abortion' as search term
Filed under: BALTIMORE , Health Site Abortion
Apr 5, 2008 11:36 AM (1 day ago) AP
Examiner.com
<http://www.examiner.com/a-1322341~Hopkins_
health_site_restores__abortion__as_search_term.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6s7yh5>
Johns Hopkins Bows To USAID Censorship Push
Slashdot - Apr 4, 2008
<http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/04/1535231>
Sun Report
Reported by: The Baltimore Sun, Media Partner
Contributor: Jeff Herman
Last Update: 4/04 9:57 pm
ABC News 2
<http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?
content_id=be0b2f4c-68be-4714-8f1b-ff1bd15bdc86>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/66lraq>
A week after a Johns Hopkins-run research database funded by the government
quietly restricted abortion-related online queries, Hopkins officials ordered
full access to all articles restored Friday, making more than 22,000
abortion-related studies easy to find again.
The change came after librarians and women's health advocates flooded the
blogosphere -- and e-mail boxes at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health -- with complaints of censorship. They were concerned after one
librarian was told the action was intentional an effort to comply with Bush
administration rules restricting dissemination of information about abortions
in foreign countries.
<snip>
Popline is funded by the United States Agency for International Development,
which under federal policy denies funding to non-governmental organizations
that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in
other nations.
The policy was devised under President Ronald Reagan and revived by President
Bush when he came to office in 2001. Some critics refer to it as the Global Gag
Rule.
Government Bans the Word "Abortion"
Posted by Harkavy at 8:58 AM, April 4, 2008 Village Voice
<http://blogs.villagevoice.com/bushbeat/ archives/2008/04/government_bans.php>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/66ozjn>
Government Website Caves on 'Abortion' Ban
Posted by Harkavy at 2:46 PM, April 4, 2008
Village Voice
<http://blogs.villagevoice.com/bushbeat/ archives/2008/04/government_webs.php>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/55fux9>
Word "abortion" disappears from US government-funded search engine
Freedom fried
By Sylvie Barak: Friday, 04 April 2008, 5:23 PM
The Inquirer
<http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/
2008/04/04/word-abortion-censored-american>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/6ltzg6>
But obviously not content with preventing foreigners in the worlds poorest and
most desperate countries from accessing information on abortion, they have now
decided to censor the information from Americans too. After all, charity starts
at home. Any search for the keyword abortion on the site now simply gives the
dubious "No records found by latest query" result. Would this be a good time to
mention that the USA often refers to itself as leader of the FREE world?
The blatant censorship first came to light after a librarian at the University
of California at San Francisco was in the midst of a research request on behalf
of (knocked up?) academics and researchers at the university on Monday. Sure
that it must be a mistake, as the search function on the site had worked
properly at least until January, she called Debbie Dickson, the manager of the
database at Johns Hopkins. Hopkins replied that the university had indeed
started to censor the search term due to the fact that the database was
receiving government funding. "As a federally funded project, we decided this
was best for now", she sputtered.
The policy of denying government funding to NGOs who either actually perform
abortions, or just happen to mention and explain about it is a policy that goes
back to the Reagan era. President Bush saw fit to revive the outdated,
ridiculously conservative policy in 2001 (just when he was preaching about
bringing freedom and democracy to the Arab world).
Sheepish and apologetic Dickson offered a few hints about how people could
circumvent the censorship. She noted that using obscure search strategies and
different words for abortion would probably get around the keyword blocking.
For example, the keywords 'Fertility Control, Postconception', or "unwanted w/2
pregnancy", would probably do the trick. Basically, just as with real, live
neo-conservative politicians, if you use big clever words, they probably wont
understand you.
Overreaction to Bush Administration Complaint Prompted Block on 'Abortion'
Searches
By Sarah Lai Stirland April 04, 2008 | 2:52:54 PM
Categories: Censorship
Wired News
<http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/administrators.html>
As previously reported, a search on "abortion" used to produce nearly 25,000
hits on the site. But on Thursday, the same search resulted only with the
message "No records found by latest query."
The American Library Association's president Loriene Roy applauded dean Klag's
swift move to restore the search functionality, but said in a statement that
she is still concerned about the overall policy.
"Any federal policy or rule that requires or encourages information providers
to block access to scientific information because of partisan or religious
bias is censorship," she said. "Such policies promote idealogy over science and
only serve to deny researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the
issue access to accurate scientific information."
April 4, 2008
Johns Hopkins U. Health Database Blocks Searches for 'Abortion'
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Wired Campus
<http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2874/
johns-hopkins-u-health-database-blocks-searches-for-abortion>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/5g26jg>
Health Database Ignored Abortion-related queries
by Samia Sehgal - April 5, 2008 - 0 comments The Money Times (India)
<http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20080405/
health_database_ignored_abortion_related_queries-id-1019944.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/5arqfd>
-------------------------------------
WEBBIB0708
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
[log in to unmask]
Net-Gold
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold>
<http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/net-gold.html>
<http://groups.google.com/group/net-gold?hl=en>
<http://net-gold.jiglu.com/>
General Internet & Print Resources
<http://guides.temple.edu/general-internet>
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/20309>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
Educator-Gold
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Educator-Gold/>
K12ADMINLIFE
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K12AdminLIFE/>
Nina Dillard's Photographs on Net-Gold
<http://tinyurl.com/36qd2o>
Net-Gold Membership Required to View Photos
|
