RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — A month after several members of Congress called on Google to limit the appearance of anti-abortion centers in some abortion-related search results, 17 Republican attorney generals are warning the company that this could lead to an investigation and possible case.
“Silencing pro-life and motherly voices in the calls of government officials violates the most fundamental principles of the American market of ideas,” the attorney general said in a letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company, on Thursday.
The effort was led by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the letter was given to the Associated Press before it was published.
Republicans at U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va. and Rep. Signed by Elissa Slotkin, DM, 19 other members of Congress.
The letter cited a study by the nonprofit Center for Digital Hate that found that Google searches for “abortion clinic near me” and that the “abortion pill” yielded results for centers that counsel these clients against abortion.
Some of these places, known as crisis pregnancy centers, have also been accused of providing misleading information about abortion and contraception. Many are religious.
“Sending women to fake clinics that spread false information and don’t provide comprehensive healthcare is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google search results,” said a letter written after the leak of a draft opinion pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court in June. The court ruled in the 1973 Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide. The court took this step on June 24.
A Democratic-led group has asked Google to decide what steps to take to limit the appearance of “emergency pregnancy centers” in search results, ads, and maps for users searching for “abortion clinic”, “abortion pill” or the like. . terms.
The group also asked the company to include a disclaimer as to whether the clinic performed abortions. The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James expressed similar concerns in a separate email to Google in June.
Letter from Republican AG defending the work of crisis pregnancy centers. He said such centers often offer services such as free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, tests for STDs, and parenting and prenatal education classes. He also says that “at least some” Google users looking for information on abortion expect to find information on alternatives.
They wrote that if the company complied with “this inappropriate request” and “misrepresented” the search results, their office would respond by investigating whether there were any violations of antitrust or religious discrimination laws. They also promised to evaluate whether the new law would help “protect consumers and markets”.
“We believe you will take this letter as seriously as these questions warrant, and we hope you will decide that Google search results should not be subject to left-wing political pressure that can actively harm women seeking help. If you don’t, we will protect our voters’ rights, diversity of thought, freedom of expression, and religion for all Americans. We must use all legal and appropriate means to support freedom of speech and ensure that our markets are truly free, and not just in theory,” the letter said.
He asked the Californian company to respond within 14 days and explain whether it could take any steps to deal with crisis pregnancy centers before the Supreme Court’s draft ruling was leaked.
Google did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
A Warner spokesperson said the senator did not receive a response to the June letter. But Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Combating Digital Hate, said he believes his organization has made little change lately in response to Google’s research.
In searches for “An abortion clinic near me,” the company appears to have changed the title of its map results from “Abortion Clinic” to “Location”, according to the center, which has misinformation and misinformation online. provided his research and screenshots. Examples of AP.
Miyares, who defeated incumbent Democrat Mark Herring in November, visited the Lynchburg Crisis Pregnancy Center, which was attacked after the Supreme Court’s decision, and condemned what she called “political violence”.
Google and other major tech companies have also faced calls for tighter privacy controls recently to address concerns that location, text messages, calls and email information could be used against people trying to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
This month, Google announced that it will automatically remove information about users who have visited abortion clinics or other places that could cause legal trouble, in light of a Supreme Court ruling.
Source: Breitbart
