A month after some members of Congress urged Google to restrict the looks of anti-abortion being pregnant facilities in sure abortion-related search outcomes, 17 Republican attorneys normal are warning the corporate that doing so might invite investigations and attainable authorized motion.
“Suppressing pro-life and pro-mother voices at the urging of government officials would violate the most fundamental tenet of the American marketplace of ideas,” the attorneys normal wrote in a letter Thursday to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its dad or mum firm.
The effort was led by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the letter was shared with The Associated Press forward of its public launch.
The Republicans took subject with a June 17 letter to the corporate from U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, which was co-signed by 19 different members of Congress.
That letter cites analysis by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which discovered that Google searches for “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” turned up outcomes for facilities that counsel purchasers in opposition to having an abortion.
Some of those locations, referred to as disaster being pregnant facilities, even have been accused of offering deceptive details about abortion and contraception. Many are religiously affiliated.
“Directing women towards 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,” says the June letter, which was authored after the leak of a draft opinion indicating the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The courtroom took that step June 24.
The Democrat-led group requested Google to handle what steps it could take to restrict the looks of “crisis pregnancy centers” in its search outcomes, adverts and maps outcomes for customers who seek for “abortion clinic,” “abortion pill” or different comparable phrases.
The group additionally requested the corporate if it could add disclaimers to handle whether or not or not a clinic supplies abortions. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ workplace additionally raised comparable considerations in a June letter to Google.
The letter from the Republican AGs defends the work of disaster being pregnant facilities. It notes that such facilities typically present companies akin to free ultrasounds, being pregnant assessments, testing for sexually transmitted illnesses, and parenting and prenatal training lessons. It additionally argues that “at least some” Google customers who seek for details about abortion look forward to finding details about alternate options.
They wrote that if the corporate complies with “this inappropriate demand” to “bias” its search outcomes, their places of work would reply by investigating whether or not there had been any violation of antitrust or spiritual discrimination legal guidelines. They additionally pledged to think about whether or not new laws would assist “protect consumers and markets.”
“We trust that you will treat this letter with the seriousness these issues require, and hope you will decide that Google’s search results must not be subject to left-wing political pressure, which would actively harm women seeking essential assistance. If you do not, we must avail ourselves of all lawful and appropriate means of protecting the rights of our constituents, of upholding viewpoint diversity, free expression, and the freedom of religion for all Americans, and of making sure that our markets are free in fact, not merely in theory,” the letter mentioned.
It requested the California-based firm to reply inside 14 days and clarify whether or not it has or will take any steps to deal with disaster being pregnant facilities any in a different way than earlier than the leak of the draft Supreme Court determination.
The AP despatched Google a request for touch upon Thursday.
Miyares, who defeated incumbent Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring in November, lately traveled to a Lynchburg disaster being pregnant heart that was vandalized after the Supreme Court’s ruling, condemning what he known as an act of “political violence.”
Google and different Big Tech corporations even have confronted current requires extra stringent privateness controls to handle considerations that details about location, texts, searches and emails could possibly be used in opposition to individuals in search of to finish undesirable pregnancies.
Google introduced this month that it could robotically purge details about customers who go to abortion clinics or different locations that would set off authorized issues in gentle of the excessive courtroom’s ruling.
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