More than 20 Democrats in the House and Senate have demanded that the CEO of Google curtail search engine results showing pro-life maternity centers.
Lawmakers called pregnancy centers that don’t offer abortions “fake clinics.”
In a letter to Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, lawmakers wrote: “Directing women to fake clinics that disseminate misinformation and fail to provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results.”
The letter, headed by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, was signed by twenty-one Democrats.
In recent weeks, pro-life organizations and crisis maternity centers across the country have been the target of vandalism and violence. A pro-abortion group calling itself Jane’s Revenge has reportedly claimed responsibility for some of the violent attacks on pro-life maternity centers and Catholic churches.
The FBI has launched an investigation into these attacks.
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In a Twitter post, Mr. Warner took the letter as a nudge to get Google to “tackle manipulative search results leading to ‘crisis maternity center’ scams.”
“It’s time for them to limit or label results and ads leading to fake abortion clinics,” said Mr. warner.
In the letter to Mr. Pichai, lawmakers cited research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an organization “that targets accused ‘hate groups and individuals for de-platforming campaigns to remove them from major social media, according to Influence Watch.
The lawmakers said CCDH found that “11% of search results for ‘abortion clinic near me’ and ‘abortion pill’ are in states with so-called ‘trigger laws’ — laws that would effectively ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned — were for fake clinics against abortion.”
“Directing women to fake clinics that disseminate misinformation and fail to provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” they wrote.
The Democrats also warned that CCDH’s research found that 37% of search results were “for fake anti-abortion clinics” and that Google shouldn’t display “fake anti-abortion clinics or crisis pregnancy centers in their search results for users searching for an” abortion clinic’ or ‘abortion pill’.”
SEE ALSO: Marco Rubio vows to block White House push for abortion’ public health emergency.’
“If Google is to continue to display these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results must at least be appropriately labeled,” the lawmakers wrote.
They ask Google to propose restricting the portion of clinics in Google’s search results, ads, and Maps.
They also advocate a plan to “add disclaimers that clearly state whether or not a search result will yield abortions” and “information about Google’s efforts to provide accurate search results related to healthcare.”
The Washington Times contacted Google for comment but heard nothing back.
Other Democrats who signed the letter included Sens. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, Dianne Feinstein from California, Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, John Hickenlooper from Colorado, Alex Padilla from California, Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, Ed Markey from Massachusetts, Michael Bennet from Colorado, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Bernard Sanders, Vermont Independent.
Representatives Don Beyer of Virginia, Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Jason Crow of Colorado, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Katie Porter of California, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, and Jackie Speier of California signed the letter.
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, the number of signers was incorrectly stated in the letter to Google.
