WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. lawmakers urged Alphabet Inc’s main Google search engine to give correct outcomes to folks searching for abortions reasonably than generally sending them to “disaster being pregnant facilities,” which steer girl away from the procedures.
The request got here in a letter, whose prime signatories have been Senator Mark Warner and Representative Elissa Slotkin, despatched to Google on Friday and first reported by Reuters.
The letter was prompted by a research launched final week by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. The research discovered that 11% of the outcomes for a seek for an “abortion clinic close to me” or “abortion tablet” in some states have been for facilities that oppose abortion.
The analysis was performed within the 13 states with legal guidelines that would ban abortion if, as anticipated, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized it nationwide as quickly as this month.
Google declined to touch upon the letter to Alphabet chief government Sundar Pichai, however stated of the report: “We’re at all times methods to enhance our outcomes to assist folks discover what they’re in search of, or perceive if what they’re in search of might not be obtainable.”
The letter was signed by 14 senators and 7 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. All are Democrats.
Crisis being pregnant facilities, which have been round in a single kind or one other for years, replicate disagreements within the United States over the proper to terminate a being pregnant. Some of the facilities have been accused of giving women inaccurate details about their being pregnant, which might jeopardize their entry to abortion.
“Google shouldn’t be displaying anti-abortion faux clinics or disaster being pregnant facilities,” the lawmakers wrote. “If Google should proceed displaying these deceptive outcomes…the outcomes ought to, on the very least, be appropriately labeled,” they wrote.
Google has handled different well being issues in another way. Searches relating to suicide or sexual assault are topped by a curated listing of sources and trusted sources.
The analysis group additionally discovered that within the states that it studied that 28% of Google Ads have been for the anti-abortion facilities, as have been 37% of the outcomes on Google Maps. The letter stated that a few of the facilities had disclaimers however not all.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis)
