Google says it will provided verified results for abortion clinics > 자유게시판

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search results will now default to show only verified abortion providers, after it was accused of steering users toward fake clinics and pregnancy crisis centers that seek to discourage women from getting the procedure.

The search engine will now start adding labels to its Search and Maps listing for specific health care facilities it has verified as abortion providers, with a different label given to others that provide abortion-related services.

If the company has received confirmation that a facility provides abortions, the label would say 'Provides abortions,' and in cases where they don't have confirmation, the label will say 'Might not provide abortions.'

The new policy comes after Democratic lawmakers urged the company to crack down on its results for fake clinics and crisis pregnancy centers following reports that these facilities were the top results for abortion services in states creating laws to limit abortions.

But Google executives say it is just one part of a series of improvements to how the search engine displays and labels results for locations in Search and Maps.

They now plan to expand labels to other facilities and places to better show which services a business provides, reports, and will make it easier for users to expand their search perimeter if they do not find what they are looking for in their local area. 

That could mean that women living in one of the states where abortion access is restricted could search beyond their area for an abortion provider. 

Google will now specify in its relevant searches which facilities provide abortions, and which 'might not provide abortions'

Google executives say it is just one part of a series of improvements to how the search engine displays and labels results for locations in Search and Maps

Google will now work to get confirmation that each site listed as an abortion provider on the website actually perform the service by regularly calling the businesses and working with authoritative data sources.

Executives note that the search engine already has a similar feature in place when users look for a specific COVID vaccine or an electric vehicle charging facility, and the initial local results show you places that offer that service.

'When people turn to Google to find local information, we aim to help them easily explore the range of places available, so they can determine which are the most helpful to them,' a company spokesperson said in a statement. 

'For a number of categories where we've received confirmation that places offer specific services, we've been working for many months on more useful ways to display those results.

'We're now rolling out an update that makes it easier for people to find places that offer the services they've searched for, or broaden their results to see more options.

'We followed our standard testing and evaluation process to confirm that these updates are more helpful for people.'

But when asked whether Google will specifically label crisis pregnancy centers that discourage women from getting an abortion with the 'Might not provide abortions' label, company executives just said the update is not about categorizing the places themselves or labeling specific types of organizations. 

Still, they noted that the 'Might not provide abortions' label could appear on a variety of different places that are available in a certain area, but do not provide the service. 

The search engine has been accused of trying to steer women seeking an abortion away from facilities that provide the procedure and to facilities that discourage women from getting an abortion. A woman is seen here checking in for her appointment to receive an abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Florida

Studies have shown that in states where abortion access is limited, search results for abortion clinics mainly turn up crisis pregnancy centers, like the one in Worcester, Massachusetts, right, rather than a facility that provides an abortion, like the one in Fargo, North Dakota, left

The tech giant has previously been accused of steering women seeking an abortion away from facilities that offer the service.

A recent study found that crisis pregnancy centers make up about a quarter of the top 10 search results on average in all 50 states and Washington DC, and in 13 states where the procedure is limited, five or more of the top 10 results were for crisis pregnancy centers.

Meanwhile, the reported back in June that a similar study found 11 percent of Google search results for 'abortion clinic near me' and 'abortion pill' led to crisis pregnancy centers.

The researchers studied 13 states that were at the time likely to outlaw abortions, and found 37 percent of the Google Maps searches in those states led to fake clinics.

They also found that nearly 28 percent of Google Buy Facebook Ads Accounts -VCCAccounts.Com displayed at the top of the search result pages in those states were for anti-abortion clinics.

Eventually, after the Supreme Court's plans to overturn Roe v Wade were leaked back in May, Sen. Mark Werner, of Virginia, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, wrote to Google asking it to crack down on results that pointed users to 'anti-abortion fake clinics' when they searched for 'abortion clinic near me' or 'abortion pill.'

But since the Supreme Court struck down the decision granting women the right to an abortion, the company has made some changes.

On June 24 - the same day Roe was overturned, Alphabet Chie People Officer Fiona Cicconi sent a memo telling employees that the company would 'keep working to make information on reproductive health care accessible across our products.' 

Then in July, Google executives announced it would automatically delete records of user visits to sensitive locations like abortion clinics.

And in that same month, Alphabet-owned YouTube said it would take down content that promotes falsehoods about the safety of abortion and direct users to information from health authorities, alongside videos and search results about abortion. 

Finally, on Thursday, Mark Isakowitz, Google's vice president of US and Canada Government Affairs and Public Policy, wrote back to the Democratic lawmakers, saying it would indeed change its policy.

'We continue to update our Local Search services for local health-related queries, including