Science, in particular medical science, is being subordinated by the Bush administration to religious dogma. Recently, the website of the National Institute of Health removed explanations that there was no link between abortion and breast cancer, replacing them with the claim that the link is "inconclusive." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun emphasizing abstinence and risks of condom use rather than reasons to use condoms. Now, the NIH is questioning the value of research into sexuality and the spread of AIDS

According to an editorial in the Detroit Free Press:

Never mind that the scientists at NIH had already put the researchers through rigorous screening before awarding the federal funds. Now the respected professionals who seek answers to sexual questions -- including what teens may not know about birth control and how best to stop the spread of AIDS -- have to justify their existence. ... Now scientists are being put through the wringer if they want to study or inform Americans' sexual habits.

Such research may be seen as fundamentally subversive - after all, if it is revealed that people are much more sexually active than fundamentalists want, or that abstinence education doesn't really work, then the entire religious agenda for returning America to a puritan sexual ethic will be undermined. Of course, that agenda won't work anyway - at most sexuality will be driven more underground where it (they hope) won't be studied and hence not publicized, but even that seems unlikely. Instead, all they really achieve is to discredit the scientific process. Then again, maybe that's OK with them, too.

Read More:

• What is Science?
• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right