Huge Pro Choice Demonstration

[Sayhey]

I've heard estimates anywhere from 500,000 to a million people attended the rally in Washington to protect abortion rights. Perhaps people are waking up to the dangers of this administration.

from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3657527.stm)

[zimv20]

a friend of mine went to that. i look forward to her report.

[numediaman]

White House to pull support for conference

By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Bush administration is scrapping plans to sponsor a major global health and reproductive rights conference that features liberal advocacy groups, including several pro-choice organizations and MoveOn.org, which is spending millions of dollars on negative ads to defeat President Bush.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will withdraw its support today, according to a senior government official.

"We expect they will be notified officially" today, a senior government official said of USAID's decision to withdraw from the June gathering in Washington.


Speaking of reproductive rights, Bush apparently is a bit short in this area:

[vniow]

a friend of mine went to that. i look forward to her report.

Yeah, a friend of mine went too. Go DJ Durt!

[numediaman]

Yeah, a friend of mine went too. Go DJ Durt!

[miloblithe]

I was there with my fiancee, a bunch of her friends, my parents, and a bunch of their friends. Inspiring really. Tons and tons of people. I continue to see a lot of people around DC with pins and stickers supporting the march and showing that they participated.

Oh, and I've seen estimates of 1.15 million. I have no idea how many there were, but I can say that by the time the front end of the march had completed the planned circuit, the tail end of the march hadn't even started to leave the mall.

[numediaman]

Government Fact Sheet on Condoms Another Example of Ideology over Science

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has replaced its condom fact sheet with a new one that omits scientifically-based information. The previous fact sheet, which was created during the Clinton Administration in 1996, was taken off the CDC's web site in July 2001.

The CDC has also replaced its fact sheet debunking the myth that women who have had abortions are at a greater risk of developing breast cancer with one that says the research is inconsistent. The American Cancer Institute maintains that there is no link between abortions and cancer and that studies suggesting a link are flawed.

The new fact sheets have drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress who see a pattern in the Bush Administration of putting ideology over science.

http://www.siecus.org/policy/PUpdates/pdate0047.html

I'd add a comment, but this administration does tend to make one speechless sometimes.

[zimv20]

some years ago (90s), i found a bunch of data on the CDC site about HIV transmission rates. i learned some really fascinating stuff, like how a single act of unprotected intercourse between an uninfected man and an infected woman has a transmission rate is something on the order of a tenth of one percent. (yeah, everything was a lot lower than i thought it would be)

i went looking for that data about a year ago and couldn't find it. i can't say for sure if it was taken down, but i was clever enough to find it a few years ago.

[pinto32]

CNN said it was 1.1 million :)

My school ran a bus down there for the march, they actually had to get a couple of the school's vans at the last minute, because there was such a high turnout! (unfortunatly, I was not among them)

Its kinda funny, Fox News is making the same accusations about the Pope telling Kerry what to do as conservatives made against Kennedy in 1960....yet, the bush administration and papacy seem to be hiring the same "scientists" (term used loosely), as both of them are spending millions to tell Africans that condoms dont work.....

[wordmunger]

FWIW, I have blogged (http://wordmunger.com/index.php?p=11) on this.