Topline
Google and Yelp pledged this week to more clearly label whether medical centers that are listed in their search results offer abortions, after Google faced backlash from Democratic lawmakers who said the site was directing those seeking abortions to crisis pregnancy centers that discourage the procedure.
The Google search application is seen on an iPhone.
Key Facts
In a letter to a group of lawmakers who reached out to Google in June, the company said when someone searches for an abortion facility, local search results will only display providers that Google has verified actually offer abortions, though people can still “broaden their search” and look at other listings.
A Google spokesperson also told Forbes that if Google has verified a facility offers medical services to terminate a pregnancy, it will affix a label like “provides abortions” in search results, while uncomfirmed places will say “might not provide abortions.”
The company confirms whether a health care facility provides abortions in several ways, including by calling the businesses and using “authoritative data sources,” the spokesperson said.
Google told Forbes the company has been working “for many months on more useful ways to display those results.”
Meanwhile, Yelp said Tuesday it will use a new label to indicate whether businesses that appear on Yelp’s listings are a crisis pregnancy centers, which don’t offer abortions and frequently encourage people not to terminate their pregnancies.
The company said it has also been working since 2018 to better categorize results pages of crisis pregnancy centers to differentiate them from healthcare providers with abortion services.
Key Background
A group of 21 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Google in June asking the company to correct misleading search results that direct people seeking abortions to crisis pregnancy centers, a push that came in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The letter, led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), cited research from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate that found in states with trigger laws that effectively ban almost all abortions, 11% of search results for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” directed people to clinics opposed to abortion. A Bloomberg analysis also found Google Maps regularly misdirects people looking for abortion providers, with crisis pregnancy centers comprising about 25% of the top 10 search results on average across all states. Yelp said it has re-categorized 470 businesses with clearer labels in 2022 and has evaluated roughly 33,500 pages to ensure search results are more accurate.
Further Reading
Google Search and Maps will now clearly label if a healthcare facility provides abortions (Tech Crunch)
Google to Label Medical Facilities That Provide Abortions (Bloomberg)
Yelp to begin prominently labeling crisis pregnancy centers to avoid confusion (CNN)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/08/25/google-will-label-verified-abortion-clinics-in-search-results/