FC: Bush administration deleted sex ed info from .gov site

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sun Dec 08 2002 - 20:11:02 PST

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    [This is a risk of having the government "do" science or give advice about 
    sex education... It politicizes what should be objective, neutral, and very 
    important advice. --Declan]
    
    ---
    
     > New York Times
     >
     > November 26, 2002
     > http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/national/26ABST.html
     >
     > Critics Say Government Deleted Web Site Material to Push Abstinence
     > By ADAM CLYMER
     >
     > WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 - Information on condom use, the relation between
     > abortion and breast cancer and ways to reduce sex among teenagers has been
     > removed from government Web sites, prompting critics to accuse the
     > Department of Health and Human Services of censoring medical information
     > in order to promote a philosophy of sexual abstinence.
     >
     > Over the last year, the department has quietly expunged information on how
     > using condoms protects against AIDS, how abortion does not increase the
     > risk of breast cancer and how to run programs proven to reduce teenage
     > sexual activity. The posting that found no link between abortion and
     > breast cancer was removed from the department's Web site last June, after
     > Representative Christopher H. Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is
     > co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, wrote a letter of protest to
     > Secretary Tommy Thompson calling the research cited by the National Cancer
     > Institute "scientifically inaccurate and misleading to the public."
     >
     > The removal of the information has set off protests from other members of
     > Congress, mainly Democrats, and has prompted a number of liberal health
     > advocacy groups to accuse the department of bowing to pressure from social
     > conservatives.
     >
     > The controversy began drawing attention late last month, when
     > Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat, and other members
     > of Congress wrote to Mr. Thompson protesting the removal of the material.
     > Bill Pierce, the department's deputy assistant secretary for media
     > affairs, said that in all three cases the removals were made so that
     > material could be rewritten with newer scientific information. He also
     > said the decisions to remove material had been made by the Centers for
     > Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health
     > without any urging from the department's headquarters.
    [...]
    
    
    
    
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