Government-Backed Health Search Engine Blocks The Word "Abortion"

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Wired   |  Sarah Lai Stirland   |   April 4, 2008 12:59 PM


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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."

Read the whole story here.


 
 

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- MissingAmerica See Profile I'm a Fan of MissingAmerica permalink

Just another example of how radical religious beliefs have infiltrated our politics. We used to have free will and conduct our lives according to our own beliefs and faith. This is yet another injustice and insult to the intelligence of the American people, another tear in our Constitution.

It is unfortunate that we have to suffer these indignities inflicted by our leadership until a new leader is elected, when we have an option in front of us which is not being used by a Congress which doesn't have the guts to stand up for America.

If we can't impeach the leaders, let's remember whose backing Bush and vote them ALL out when their turn comes. This includes Nancy Pelosi. It appears this is the only way America will be restored and rebuilt.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:33 AM on 04/06/2008
- ROBOT8 See Profile I'm a Fan of ROBOT8 permalink

THAT'S CUZ GEORGE BUSH HATES TO SEE HIS MIDDLE NAME IN PRINT!!!!!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:27 AM on 04/06/2008
- Davwbaird See Profile I'm a Fan of Davwbaird permalink

IIt's kinda like a surprise? Its kinda like the executive order allowing only Fox Cable news to played on PX and other government controlled TV's, kinda like this are like letting their skid mark underwear show.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:00 PM on 04/05/2008
- forpeace See Profile I'm a Fan of forpeace permalink

*

When are they going to Block the word "LIAR"

*

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:36 PM on 04/05/2008
- speakingtruth2power See Profile I'm a Fan of speakingtruth2power permalink


The ChristoFascists have politicized every aspect of our government.

"Almost any sect, cult or religion will legislate it's creed into law if it

acquires the political power to do so." Quote from Robert Heinlein.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:53 PM on 04/05/2008
- GoodbyeKitty See Profile I'm a Fan of GoodbyeKitty permalink

Looks like they fixed the problem

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:29 AM on 04/05/2008
- SifSkade See Profile I'm a Fan of SifSkade permalink

I just went to popline, put "abortion" into the articles search, and came back with "Your search found 26383 record(s)." So not sure what this is about. Although I definitely wouldn't put it past the Bush administration to do something like cull out all of the articles suggesting that abortion could ever be the best option, so maybe the results I found were biased. Such a mess.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:04 AM on 04/05/2008
- VOTER See Profile I'm a Fan of VOTER permalink

Popline has returned the word, ABORTION, to the files.

When and how was it deleted in the first place?

How soon before it is deleted again?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:32 AM on 04/05/2008
- mamacat See Profile I'm a Fan of mamacat permalink

The world would be a better place if Barbara Bush had known about abortion, and used it. Or, at least, how to practice safe sex.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:46 AM on 04/05/2008
- kroses98 See Profile I'm a Fan of kroses98 permalink

AMEN!!! This guy is really NUTS!!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:51 AM on 04/05/2008
- pigsatthetrough See Profile I'm a Fan of pigsatthetrough permalink

Sometimes it pays to check out a story. I went to the site, then to popline, searched for 'abortion' and immediately got about thirty hits. The first was highlited abortion and the rest about abortion etc amongst other countries. Is it possible they read huffpo and let these through? I doubt it, but there are responses.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:08 PM on 04/04/2008
- InternationalObserver See Profile I'm a Fan of InternationalObserver permalink

C'mon HuffPo -- double check your claimed 'facts'. Who is right - you or pigsatthetrough ???

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:41 AM on 04/05/2008
- majseventh See Profile I'm a Fan of majseventh permalink

They reported the facts. It seems that a librarian in San Francisco noticed it first and called the woman in charge of the site and she confirmed it was deleted. It looks as though this article and Huffinton Post have put pressure on them with the publics help. This is the Bush administration in action. I can't wait until January when he is gone.
We do have freedom of the press and speech. Censorship is not the American way.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:29 PM on 04/05/2008
- anastasiabeaverhousen See Profile I'm a Fan of anastasiabeaverhousen permalink

There are a lot of words and phrases I'm sure are blocked. How about:

Worst president in American history
Lied us into a war
War profiteering
Pilfering the Treasury
Cronies
Money for cronies
Appointing idiots to goverment posts to prove the contention that goverment doesn't work
Jeff Gannon
Why aren't Cheney's stock options in Halliburton a conflict of interest (at the least) or war profiteering
Why wasn't outing Valerie Plame treason
The governor of Alabama and Turdblossom's involvement
What did warrantless wiretapping come up with on Dems so they roll over at every turn for these fucking criminals?

Just a few off the top of my head....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:20 PM on 04/04/2008
- gretchenart See Profile I'm a Fan of gretchenart permalink

A number of companies, such as McAfee, appear to be cooperating with the current government's penchant for controlling our words, our thoughts, etc. as best they can. McAfee has a SiteAdvisor program that I accidently installed on a couple of my computers and it automatically began censoring images and words and blocking me from websites having to do with the following:
Bush criticism
evolution
other seemingly innocuous images
I had thought the "parental controls" would be optional, not default and that they were aimed at sex and violence, not theories of evolution over creationism nor to block out political dissent.
Boy was I wrong. I have since disabled this feature, but quite frankly it scared the bejesus out of me that we are being so closely monitored by the very "tools" that are supposed to provide us "security" instead!
So maybe all these anti-net neutrality companies will be the next to get immunity from proscecution after the world finds out the government has asked them to collect web browsing information, book order information (Amazon), etc. from them and they, of course, "cooperated" in the fight against us terrorists.
Problem is, it looks like a terrorist is anyone who:
dissents with the repugnant party torture em' kill em' bomb em' back to the dark ages policies and mentality
registers Democrat
wants peace, not war
believes in evolution over creationism, science over delusion, reality over propaganda...
buys books or has images critical of the current administration or its apologists

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:12 PM on 04/04/2008
- InternationalObserver See Profile I'm a Fan of InternationalObserver permalink

oh, c'mon! You say:

"...McAfee has a SiteAdvisor program that I accidently installed on a couple of my computers and it automatically began censoring images and words and blocking me from websites having to do with the following:
Bush criticism
evolution..."

Are you seriously claiming you 'accidently' installed it on several computers AND it blocked you from site searching those words? Sorry chum, I'm a skeptic.

I won't even let my child get away with making sh1t up.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:44 AM on 04/05/2008
- plainsman See Profile I'm a Fan of plainsman permalink

I figured something like this was going on. I'm hoping these extreme measures are at the behest of the Bush administration and don't reflect a movement that will span multiple administrations...I won't be holding my breath.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:04 AM on 04/05/2008
- ReelBusy See Profile I'm a Fan of ReelBusy permalink

But it allows a search for the words ORWELL and 1984.
Weird, huh?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:22 PM on 04/04/2008
- grisgris See Profile I'm a Fan of grisgris permalink

Thank you. The first thing I thought when I read the story was welcome to "1984".

I wonder, just how short lived was the "information age"? God knows, it is definitely dead now.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:36 PM on 04/04/2008
- Boboday555 See Profile I'm a Fan of Boboday555 permalink

In 2003 Dr. Lawrence Britt wrote an article about fascism, identifying 14 sure sings.
See how many you can associate with the Bush regime:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:49 PM on 04/04/2008
- lisakaz See Profile I'm a Fan of lisakaz permalink

Iraq is our Abysinnia.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:21 PM on 04/04/2008
- Wolfgang See Profile I'm a Fan of Wolfgang permalink

No, Italy won in Abysinnia. Which is the only place in which they ever won.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:46 PM on 04/05/2008
- thisoldbroad See Profile I'm a Fan of thisoldbroad permalink

Can't the current administration & the religious fanatics that have attached themselves to it see their time would be better spent caring for the children who are already here? The child abuse statistics are not a badge of honor for this country. The brief flurry of outrage after another tragic death of a child hits the news quickly dies down & is gone again - with no sustained effort by "pro-life" supporters to stop the next one. Sexual abuse of girls (1 in 4) and boys (1 in 5) before the age of 18 are staggering. Where is the battle cry for them?

Sadly, "pro-life" groups consider it a victory when the child is born & lose all interest in the welfare of that child going forward. The health, welfare & safety of that child from birth on is not their problem. They don't want to pay for food, shelter, health or the education of these kids; safety is someone elses responsibility.

When "pro-life" really MEANS pro-life instead of just pro-birth, then we can have dialog about real honest sex education & stopping the cycle of abuse.

Until then, we must all fight for the continued separation of church & state. A good cleansing from the top down is needed to get us back on track.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:15 PM on 04/04/2008
- hoopesaz See Profile I'm a Fan of hoopesaz permalink

Typical liberal attack to paint all republicans with the same brush. I'm republican and religious (fanatical doesn't describe anything about me) and I don't agree with abortion in most cases, but what's being done here is just stupid. If anything they should post an article about the alternatives to abortion and have it bubble to the top of the list so people at least see that there is such a thing.

It simply discounts the intelligence of everyone to think that hiding the search results is going to somehow trick them out of making the decision one way or the other.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:43 PM on 04/04/2008
- thisoldbroad See Profile I'm a Fan of thisoldbroad permalink

If I was a "liberal" & this was my "typical liberal attack", I'd be quite proud!

Gratitude for those who came to my defense.

Hoopesaz is wrong on 2 key issues, which makes his first sentence seem rather sad. I, too, am a republican & religious. But to discount everything I wrote just because you thought I was a "liberal" is a sad statement on where battle lines have been drawn on the issue of abortion in this country.

This is the perfect example why women's health issues should NEVER be a political issue. And while I'm on my podium - there should NOT be an office of Faith Based Initiatives in OUR white house either.. Perhaps in the future I should sign off as..

Respectfully yours,
REPUBLICAN

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:31 AM on 04/06/2008
- catharsis271828 See Profile I'm a Fan of catharsis271828 permalink

The words republican and religious descride you as fanatical hoopesaz. You are right about having alternatives to abortion "bubble" up to the top though. The number one alternative should be the address to your house so the mothers can take their children over for you to raise. All of you "slaughter of the unborn" idiots can just shut the hell up until you start putting your money where your big mouths are. Sell your hummer buy a van and adopt all the kids you can.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:06 AM on 04/05/2008
- cindyw See Profile I'm a Fan of cindyw permalink

You complain about painting "all republicans with the same brush" in the same sentence with "typical liberal". Can you see why that's funny?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:30 AM on 04/05/2008
- lisakaz See Profile I'm a Fan of lisakaz permalink

Did you actually read the post or is that too much to ask? Where is the word "republican" in it? Covering up is part of this criminal WH's modus operandi. They'd hide the word "evolution" if they could.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:23 PM on 04/04/2008
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