U.S. lawmakers are questioning Google over how the company’s search engine shows users in certain states inaccurate results about abortion services by diverting them to “fake clinics” that don’t provide the procedure and dissuade people from ending a pregnancy.
In a letter sent Friday to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, 20 Democratic members of Congress and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) urged the company to quickly rectify the search accuracy issue, noting it comes as a U.S. Supreme Court decision due later this month could overturn the right to an abortion established in Roe v. Wade.
Lawmakers cited a recent report that found in states with abortion “trigger laws,” 11 percent of Google search results for abortion services led users to nonmedical facilities that don’t provide abortion; the result was 37 percent for Google Maps queries. The report by the U.S.-based nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate also found that almost 28 percent of Google ads that appear at the top of related search-result pages were for antiabortion clinics.
“Directing women toward fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter that was spearheaded by Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.).
The lawmakers note their request comes after Google pledged in 2014 to remove...
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