POPLINE “Abortion” Search Restored

Johns Hopkins University administrators acted quickly April 4 after librarians complained that the search term “abortion” was blocked in POPLINE, a publicly funded database on reproductive health. According to Hopkins officials, the term had been used more than 25,000 times before February but was disabled after USAID, the agency that funds POPLINE, made “an inquiry” over two abortion-related items.

“Following this inquiry, the POPLINE administrators at the Center for Communication Programs made the decision to restrict abortion as a search term,” explained Michael J. Klag, dean ofJohns Hopkins's Bloomberg School of Public Health. “I could not disagree more strongly with this decision.”

Sandra Johnson, a spokesperson for USAID, told Wired that the agency had inquired about two documents she described as “one-sided in favor of abortion rights,” a stance counter to the Bush administration's, but said that administrators at Hopkins had “misunderstood” the agency's request. (See Editorial, p. 8.)