screenshot via Google.com
You may have heard of “crisis pregnancy centers.” These are misleading anti-abortion clinics that take in pregnant people, make them think they have options there, and give them misleading information about abortion. Their goal is to get pregnant people to wait too long to be able to get an abortion, especially in states with overly restrictive windows, make people feel like they have no choice but to go through with the pregnancy, trapping them in it. They’re less helpful when it comes to giving birth, finding financial support for a baby, or finding adoption centers because they have one goal: ending abortion. Unfortunately, these anti-choice extremist sites outnumber actual abortion providers three to one, making finding an abortion in America even more difficult than it should be.
And Google made over $10 million advertising for these extremists over the past two years.
This information comes from a report using Semrush data from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), “a non-profit that counters hate and disinformation, by disrupting the online architecture enabling its rapid worldwide growth.” Their recent report, “Profiting From Deceit: How Google Profits From Anti-Choice Ads Distorting Searches For Reproductive Healthcare,” shows Google earned an estimated $10.2 million from showing forced birth ads for these fake clinics. The investment was worth it for anti-choice marketers, who say Google is their top referrer to anti-choice fake healthcare clinics.
According to CCDH’s research, Google is a “willing participant” in one of the greatest attacks on civil liberties in the past few decades.
Knowingly Assisting Oppression
“Google is a willing participant and supporter of the fake clinic industry, profiting from – and even subsidizing – the anti-choice lobby’s campaigns.”
– Imran Ahmed, CCDH CEO
This isn’t the first time Google has been made aware of problems with fake clinics in their search results. Two years ago, CCDH reported similar issues, with these fake clinics advertising as aboriton providers. They, obviously, are not, misdirection is their entire goal. Google added a label for abortion-related ads, but they’re poorly maintained and inaccurate. For example, Google labels YourAbortionChoice.org as an abortion provider, but according to Gizmodo, it’s one of these fake clinics that does not provide abortions. Meanwhile, AbortionFinder.org does help people find abortion clinics, but does not provide them themselves. Google uses the same “Does not provide abortions” label for Abortion Finder that they should be using for all fake clinics.
Google’s label is inaccurate. Screenshot via Google/Gizmodo
The goal of these fake clinics is to use the perceived legitimacy of Google search results to mislead people into going to their clinics instead of actual abortion clinics. They target over 15,000 search terms, including, “abortion pill,” “abortion clinic,” “abortion clinic near me,” and “planned parenthood,” despite offering none of these treatments or the services of Planned Parenthood. They provide medical misinformation, unsafe practices, and deceive people about the services they offer. 38% of fake clinics using Google for advertising do not disclose that they don’t offer abortions. 71% use false claims. Yet Google not only allows these ads, but, as these fake clinics are often non-profits, subsidizes some of their advertising.
People trust Google with their searches. Instead, Google puts their health at risk.
Spreading Dangerous Disinformation
It’s important to remember that these are not medical clinics. They pose as actual clinics, even go so far as to dress in lab coats in scrubs to appear like a medical facility, but they are not actual medical clinics. It would be like ordering a taco on Google from a place called “We Make Tacos,” getting your “taco” and finding it’s actually a hot dog. No, hot dogs are not tacos.
Except this isn’t just about what you’re having for lunch. It’s about people’s actual healthcare. Most platforms have rules against providing dangerous medical misinformation. This sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic, when disinformation about vaccines, COVID-19 treatments, and even masks spread like wildfire over social networks and podcasts. This disinformation likely killed people. Medical disinformation about transgender healthcare has lead to healthcare bans and actual bomb threats of children’s hospitals. Medical disinformation is extremely dangerous. Google makes millions every year on it.
These fake clinics spread lies about abortion, like that it could increase cancer rates (nope!), but also a dangerous procedure: so-called “abortion reversals.” These procedures are sold to people who are taking a medical abortion. Medical abortions typically involve taking two drugs, mifepristone and later misoprostol. The first step can provide a medical abortion, but by taking both, one a set time after the other, the patient has a more consistent result. The “abortion reversal” involves taking a dangerously high dosage of progesterone before the second pill is taken. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have called this “not based on science” and “dangerous to women’s health.” Studies into it are unethical as well, because, in 2019, a study was halted when patients experienced “dangerous hemorrhaging” that landed multiple patients in the hospital.
Despite the danger, a whopping 40% of these fake clinics using Google ads promote the procedure. Google, in two years, made $2.6 million from fake clinics advertising a dangerous, unethical, and often unsuccessful procedure. Google is distributing dangerous misinformation for profit.
Voluntary and Legislative Changes Needed
Google should want to provide accurate results to safe medical information. People trust Google search results. If they can’t, they simply won’t go to Google (I recommend Ecosia anyway). From a strictly capitalist perspective, showing results with serious health risks, healthcare misinformation, and fake clinics is just bad for business.
“We require any organization that wants to advertise to people seeking information about abortion services to be certified and clearly disclose whether they do or do not offer abortions. We do not allow ads promoting abortion reversal treatments and we also prohibit advertisers from misleading people about the services they offer. We remove or block ads that violate these policies. We know that people come to Google looking for information they can trust during deeply personal moments and are committed to ensuring advertisements on this topic are clear and easily understood.”
– Google’s official response to CCDH’s report
Google’s “provides abortions” labels are not accurate, and Google needs to ensure they are. They are not doing enough to protect their users from predatory fake clinics. Google’s response is hollow when it’s easy to show how broken these search tools are.
Google must ensure their results are clearly labeled. They need complete transparency from clinics advertising on abortion pages to show they do not provide abortions and are ideology-based, not medical clinics. They need to prioritize actual healthcare centers in searches for healthcare, not extremists who paid them for ads. Google is responsible for the misinformation they promote, and it could put them in trouble with their users if someone is hurt following the advice they found through Google’s promoted ads.
We need to push lawmakers to keep companies in line as well. Not only to go after these fake clinics, but the search companies like Google doing the heavy lifting for them, spreading their ideology when people need medical services. In the CCDH’s report, they call out empowering the Federal Trade Commission to use “truth in advertising” laws to force Google and their partners to comply with safety standards. The biggest difference you can make now is raising awareness about predatory fake clinics and the companies that support them, like Google.
Sources:
- Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Lauren Leffer, Gizmodo
- Kari Paul, The Guardian