WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers are urging Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) main Google search engine to provide correct outcomes to folks looking for abortions quite 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 are Senator Mark Warner and Consultant Elissa Slotkin, being despatched to Google on Friday.
The letter was prompted by a research launched final week by the nonprofit Heart for Countering Digital Hate. The research discovered that 11% of the outcomes for a seek for an “abortion clinic close to me” or “abortion capsule” in some states have been for facilities that oppose abortion.
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The analysis was performed within the 13 states with legal guidelines that may ban abortion if, as anticipated, the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized it nationwide as quickly as this month.
The letter to Alphabet Chief Govt Sundar Pichai and was signed by 13 senators and three members of the U.S. Home of Representatives as of midmorning Friday. All are Democrats.
Disaster being pregnant facilities, which have been round in a single type or one other for years, mirror disagreements in the USA over the precise to terminate a being pregnant. A few of the facilities have been accused of giving girls inaccurate details about their being pregnant, which might jeopardize their entry to abortion.
“Google shouldn’t be displaying anti-abortion pretend clinics or disaster being pregnant facilities in search outcomes for customers which can be trying to find an ‘abortion clinic’ or ‘abortion capsule,'” the lawmakers wrote.
“If Google should proceed displaying these deceptive ends in search outcomes and Google Maps, the outcomes ought to, on the very least, be appropriately labeled,” they wrote.
Google, which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, has handled different well being considerations in another way. Searches concerning suicide or sexual assault are topped by a rigorously curated record of sources and trusted sources.
The analysis group additionally discovered that within the states that it studied that 28% of Google Adverts have been for the anti-abortion facilities, as have been 37% of the outcomes on Google Maps. The letter that a few of the facilities had disclaimers however not all.
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Reporting by Diane Bartz; enhancing by Jonathan Oatis
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