The Politics of Research: POPLINE

Recently, POPLINE, which is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is both the “world’s largest reproductive health database,”and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), began to block searches using the word “abortion.” Such overt interference of politics and anti-intellectualism into research projects, databases, information dissemination is especially disturbing–particularly in an academic setting at a renowned research university.

Wired first broke the story of how this database, which indexes biomedical literature dealing with population data and is used by researchers, advocates, and clinicians who work in the areas of reproductive health, family planning and pregnancy, was blocking the search term “abortion”–a term some might see as vital for those researching family planning, pregnancy, and, oh right, reproductive health.

From the Wired story:
“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.’”

Which leads us into the whole issue of the economic implications of the “right” to abortion…

But for this particular instance, in a huzzah! moment, Michael J. Klag, Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, expressed his outrage at POPLINE’s decision and reversed it, issuing this statement:

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 School’s Center for Communication Programs. POPLINE provides evidence-based information on reproductive health and family planning and is the world’s 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

This shift in policy was a direct result of the Wired story (bad publicity!) and an influx of emails into the POPLINE message center (outraged citizens!). So huzzah! once more for getting your voice heard!