According to a recent report by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW), information on women's health and economic status has been buried, altered-and in many cases, deleted-from government Web sites and publications. The report, called MISSING: Information About Women's Lives, cites numerous examples: in 2002 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised a fact sheet on its Web site, putting into question the effectiveness of condoms against the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. That same year the National Cancer Institute (NCI) altered its Web site so that it said that there may in fact be a link between abortion and breast cancer. After much protest from members of Congress, the NCI reverted to its old position and the one supported by research-that abortion isn't associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Data regarding women's economic status have also been altered or removed: a publication called "Don't Work in the Dark-Know Your Rights," once published by the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau, is no longer available.

"Misinformation-or the lack of information," the report concludes, "has a direct and harmful effect on women's lives. . . . Accurate, trustworthy, science-based information and data matter, and we should be able to count on our government to provide [them]." Go to http://www.ncrw.org/misinfo/summary.pdf for more information.-Dalia Sofer