Federal officials discovered that John Hopkins
University had set up a
reproductive health site to ignore the term “abortion” in searches.
John Hopkins manages the world’s largest reproductive health
database, known as Popline, which includes more than 360,000 articles on family
planning, sexually transmitted diseases, fertility and sexual problems.
After being informed about the restrictions, which blocked
the access to thousands of studies, the dean of the John Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health restored full access to the site again.
In a statement, Dean Michael J. Klag said he had learned
about the restrictions Friday morning and he immediately ordered administrators
of the health website to restore “abortion” as a search term. He also said he
would thoroughly investigate the case, to see why this decision was taken.
“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 statement read.
After librarians at the Medical
Center of the University
of California, San Francisco, complained about having
difficulties in accessing various articles from Popline, a manager of the
health site, Debra L. Dickson, explained that the site considered the decision
was “best for now,” the New York Times informs.
Dickson also suggested that the librarians could use
alternatives for the term “abortion,” such as “postconception” or “unwanted
pregnancy.”
According to the New York Times, Gail L. Sorrough, director
of medical library services at the medical center in San Francisco, said she could see no need for
this replacement of terms, and argued that “unwanted pregnancy” was not a
synonym for “abortion.”
Dr. Klag also added that he could not allow such
restrictions to take place, as John Hopkins School of Public Health was
“dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and not its
restriction.”
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