Media Matters Helps Prove the CDC Did Cover Up Abortion Data

Posted by Erick Erickson

Monday, February 7th at 5:00AM EST

It was certainly not intentional, but the leftwing interest group Media Matters for America has uncovered an internal memo from the CDC proving the CDC did in fact cover up and suppress abortion data until RedState revealed the coverup.
On Thursday, I reported that the Centers for Disease Control was covering up abortion data. Each year since 1969, the Centers for Disease Control has published its “Abortion Surveillance System” the week after Thanksgiving in its professional journal, The Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (”MMWR”).
Two weeks ago, RedState contacted the CDC to inquire if and when the data would be released. We were told by their press office — direct quotes — that the CDC “will not have stats available at any time in the near future” and there “are no plans for them to come out any time soon.”
On Friday, the CDC reversed its position and claimed that the data would come out in February. Later that day the CDC said the data would be out February 25th.
Now Media Matters has released a memo that gives away the game. And it may be time for a congressional hearing into what happened.
Let us just be clear about the CDC’s last minute story to us. The hold up, according to the CDC, was its need to get population data. This ignores the fact that the CDC’s 2010 report will use data from 2007, including population data from 2007, readily available to anyone with an internet connection since . . . well . . . 2007, courtesy of the Census Bureau — another organization that, like the CDC, just so happens to be part of something called the federal government.
In other words, two weeks ago the CDC said it “will not have stats available at any time in the near future” and there “are no plans for them to come out any time soon.” Last week, after we documented this, the CDC reversed and said “the population data needed to develop rate/ratio statistics was not available at the time we normally prepare the ASR” and the CDC would release it “tentatively” in February. The CDC also noted the MMWR’s editorial calendar is booked ‘well in advance.’
Today, our “friends” at Media Matters confirm for us the CDC did cover up the abortion data and try to avoid publishing it. Media Matters obtained an internal CDC memo showing “that the report was submitted for review and editing on November 12.”
That would be exactly when one would expect the report to go for editing with a publication date the week after Thanskgiving.
Read more: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/02/07/media-matters-helps-prove-the-cdc-did-cover-up-abortion-data/