The Uses and Abuses of Science In Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Debates

Read Adam Sonfield's online paper in The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy.

"In making the case for particular policies, advocates and policymakers in decades past were often content to ignore, or even denigrate, science. Today, however, research findings are cited by almost everyone to buttress a political position. Yet, this has led to new problems. Whether the subject is the teaching of evolution in public schools, the public health consequences of pollution or the viability of missile defense systems, polarization over what a given study says and controversy over whether research is being applied appropriately to the policy-making process have become commonplace. Making one’s way through the resulting landscape of information, and deciding which findings are trustworthy, is becoming increasingly difficult."