Anti-abortion groups promoting misleading advertisements for clinics and abortion care in Google Search results have reportedly steered millions of dollars to the tech giant, as abortion rights groups continue to press the company to remove deceptive ads and false information from the platform.
So-called crisis pregnancy centres and anti-abortion campaigns have targeted people searching for phrases like “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” with deceptive ads intended to look like legitimate healthcare facilities but are instead “fake” clinics where patients are counselled against terminating their pregnancies, according to a report from nonprofit investigative watchdog group Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Google has collected roughly $10.2m from such ads over the last two years, the report found.
Roughly $7.3m on ad spending came from “fake” clinics in states where people are legally entitled to abortion care – four times more than ads in states where abortion access faces severe restrictions, according to the report.
“Google has sold out the trust of hundreds of thousands of Americans seeking reproductive healthcare and services to a multi-million dollar fake clinic industry that works around the clock to delay and prevent care using deceptive practices,” according to a statement from Center for Countering Digital Hate chief executive Imran Ahmed shared with The Independent.
“Search results pages are as tightly curated as TV commercial breaks or magazines’ ads pages. Google is selling the digital equivalent of Super Bowl slots to deceptive anti-choice bidders, allowing them to distort reality and limit the choices available to those searching for information and options,” he added.
A spokesperson for Google said in a statement shared with The Independent that the platform requires “any organisation 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,” the statement added.
There are roughly 2,600 so-called crisis pregnancy centres or “pregnancy resource centres” in the US, largely operated by nonprofit Christian ministries, and outnumbering reproductive healthcare clinics by a ratio of three to one.
Many “fake” clinics are not medically licensed but offer services like pregnancy tests, sonograms and prenatal care, while promoting false and misleading medical claims – including a link between abortion and cancer, as well as false claims about fetal development, reproductive healthcare and pregnancy itself – all in an effort to dissuade patients from seeking an abortion.
Google has been at the centre of years of complaints from abortion rights advocates, members of Congress and others who have criticised the visibility of non-healthcare facilities in the platform’s Search results for abortion care, particularly as legal access to care has narrowed for tens of millions of Americans.
Many of the statements in the latest report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate were uncovered in its reporting last year that prompted Google to take “immediate action on policy violating ads, including those that misrepresented the services or products they provided,” the platform shared in a statement.
Last year, the Center for Countering Digital Hate discovered that Google placed misleading ads for so-called abortion “reversal” within 83 percent of searches related to abortion. Reporting from Bloomberg discovered that Google Maps showed results for crisis pregnancy centres roughly a quarter of the time in searches for abortion care. And members of Congress have repeatedly warned the company against misdirecting users.
In August, two months after the US Supreme Court’s decision to end constitutional protections for abortion, Google announced plans to label medical clinics and hospitals that provide abortion care in its Maps app and websites. Google also announced plans to delete users’ location histories for visits to abortion clinics and other healthcare providers.
But researchers have continued to find misleading ads surrounding abortion access and false information about abortion care, including recent reporting that search results were more likely to show ads for crisis pregnancy centres to people from lower-income backgrounds in major US cities, according to the Tech Transparency Project.
Spending on Google Search advertising for both fake clinic websites and overt anti-abortion campaigns spiked throughout the summer and fall of 2021, after the Supreme Court announced on 20 May 2021 that it would take up the case that ultimately overturned Roe v Wade.
While ad spending for anti-abortion campaigns has remained low in the months that followed, ads for fake clinics have trended upward since last summer, the report found.
Despite a September 2021 pledge from Google to remove any ads promoting so-called abortion “reversal” procedures, roughly 72 “fake” clinic websites that promote the dubious claims spent an estimated $2.6m on ads between October 2021 and February 2023, according to the report.
Among the report’s findings, roughly 71 percent of “fake” clinics that advertised on the platform used at least one deceptive technique to lure users, and 16 percent promoted misleading medical claims. Thirty-eight percent failed to state on their website’s homepage that they do not provide abortion care.
The report also found anti-abortion marketing firms that help “fake” clinics access Google’s Ad Grant programme, which offers nonprofit groups up to $10,000 in monthly ad credits, which the report argues is allowing the platform to effectively subsidise the anti-abortion movement.
Google said the programme does not distinguish between advertisers promoting anti-abortion and abortion rights messages.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate recommends that Google demand transparency from clinics running ads with the company, including explicit disclaimers that the clinics do not provide abortions.
Google also is urged to end ad grants for deceptive anti-abortion websites and prioritse actual abortion care facilities in its search result. The report also encourages lawmakers to lean on the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinise misleading advertising around abortion care.
Amy Merrill, co-founder and digital director of Plan C, which advocates for medication abortion access, said the report reveals the “extent to which Google has benefited from the deception.”
“As we and other abortion access organizations band together to fight mis- and disinformation online, data like this will help hold Big Tech and policy makers accountable in helping mitigate the harm of bans and ensuring a better digital landscape for abortion-seekers nationwide,” she said in a statement shared with The Independent.
