WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) – US lawmakers have called on Alphabet Inc’s leading search engine (GOOGL.O) to give accurate results to abortion seekers, instead of sometimes sending them to “crisis pregnancy centers” that divert women from procedures. .
The request came in a letter signed by Senator Mark Warner and Representative Elisa Slotkin, sent to Google on Friday and first reported by Reuters.
The letter was prompted by a study published last week by the nonprofit Center for Combating Digital Hate. The survey found that 11% of the results of a search for an “abortion clinic near me” or an “abortion pill” in some states were for centers that oppose abortion.
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The study was conducted in 13 states with laws banning abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn the remarkable 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized it nationwide this month.
Google declined to comment on the letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, but said of the report: “We are always looking for ways to improve our results to help people find what they are looking for or see if what they are looking for. it’s not on stock.”
The letter was signed by 14 senators and seven members of the US House of Representatives. They are all Democrats.
Crisis centers for pregnancy, which have existed in one form or another for years, reflect disagreements in the United States over the right to terminate a pregnancy. Some centers have been accused of giving women inaccurate information about their pregnancies, which could jeopardize their access to abortion.
“Google should not show fake abortion clinics or crisis pregnancy centers,” lawmakers wrote. “If Google is to continue to show these misleading results … the results must at least be properly labeled,” they wrote.
Google has dealt with other health issues in different ways. Suicide or sexual assault searches are led by a select list of resources and trusted sources.
The research team also found that in the states it surveyed, 28% of Google ads were for abortion centers, and 37% of Google Maps results. The letter says some of the centers have been denied responsibility, but not all.
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Report by Diane Bartz; Edited by Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
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