Scientific Integrity

 

Scientific Integrity

The Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health collaborates with other organizations to advance scientific integrity in the U.S. government.

From family planning innovations to policies counteracting discrimination, improvements in women’s health have come because researchers investigated problems and policymakers developed their programs and policies based on these scientific findings. The U.S. government is an essential player in this process, from its work as a data collector and research funder to its role as a policymaker and enforcer of regulations. However, presidential administrations, including political appointees and federal agency leadership, may suppress, distort, and ignore evidence—to the detriment of public health, and often with particularly serious impacts on women and communities already marginalized.

Those who already face the most harmful exposures and barriers to care also suffer the most when federal officials ignore their scientific experts’ advice in areas such as availability of emergency contraception or neurotoxic effects of a pesticide, misrepresent evidence on the relationship between access to contraception and unintended pregnancies, or abruptly cancel evidence-based programming and research on preventing unwanted teen pregnancies. Scientific integrity requires that policy decisions be informed by evidence and that the public has reliable access to independent scientific information and analysis produced, funded, or acquired by the federal government without political interference.

Follow the links below for more about scientific integrity problems and solutions:  

Restoring Science in the Next Presidential Term

Restoring Science at Federal Agencies

Scientific Integrity Safeguards Needed for Reproductive Health

Science, Civil Rights, Public Health and Good Government Groups Rally Behind Scientific Integrity Legislation

Science Has Suffered at Federal Agencies; New Report Recommends Ways for Congress to Strengthen It

Trump Administration Contraceptive Rule Creates Problems for Both Women’s Health and Scientific Integrity

At EPA Hearing, Commenters Slam Science-Restriction Rule