Google Will Stop Running Crisis Pregnancy Center Ads.
On Monday, Google started to take down ads from crisis pregnancy centers that engage in overt deception of women seeking out abortion information online. Crisis pregnancy centers are anti-abortion centers that often masquerade as women’s health clinics; they exist to disseminate anti-choice propaganda to dissuade women from abortion and contraception. According to the Washington Post, Google’s decision was made after NARAL Pro-Choice America created a report for Google that showed that a full 79 percent of the paid ads for crisis pregnancy centers that pop up on Google deceitfully “indicated that they provided medical services such as abortions” when they simply did not.
Crisis pregnancy centers know that women who want abortions are likely to go to Google first to figure out next steps, and the hope is that these ads will trick women into thinking that they can get abortions at the advertised locations. Google’s ad policy states that, “All advertising claims must be factually supportable,” so this little bit of subterfuge is simply not allowed. Obviously, any glance at the claims made in sidebar advertising for beauty products or health supplements shows that a lot of companies slip through with deceptive claims, but considering the seriousness of this issue, insisting on truth in advertising seems extra important.
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