Some Google searches for information about terminating pregnancies are directing people toward anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers.”
A group of US lawmakers called on Google to fix misleading search results that steer women seeking information about terminating pregnancies to anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers.”
In a letter sent Friday, 14 senators and seven representatives urged Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, to address the search giant’s treatment of “anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers.”
“If Google must continue showing these misleading results … the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled,” read the letter, led by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
All signatories of the letter, reported earlier by Reuters, are Democrats.
Neither Warner nor Slotkin responded to requests for comment.
Google declined to comment on the letter specifically, but it did address results on Search more broadly.
“Any organization that wants to advertise to people seeking information about abortion services on Google must be certified and show in-ad disclosures that clearly state whether they do or do not offer abortions,” said Peter Schottenfels, a spokesperson for Google. “We’re always looking at ways to improve our results to help people find what they’re looking for, or understand if what they’re looking for may not be available.”
The congressional letter was prompted by a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that fights hate and disinformation online. The center found that 37% of Google Maps results and 11% of Google Searches for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” in states with trigger laws directed people to “crisis pregnancy centers,” which Planned Parenthood notes are also known as fake clinics.
Concern over information provided by crisis pregnancy centers comes amid renewed debate over abortion in the US. Some of the centers, which can be clinics or mobile vans, have been accused of providing inaccurate information to pregnant women.
Trigger laws will immediately make abortions illegal if the Supreme Court issues a decision that bans or greatly limits abortion.
A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion indicates that the high court could overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two cases that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.