Google results for abortion clinics are misleading and politically fraught

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

When a user searches for a nearby abortion clinic, they will see results for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. In all 50 states and Washington, DC, CPCs make up about 4% of the top 10 search results.

CPCs don't provide abortions. They try to discourage people from going through with the procedure by using misinformation. For example, they may say that getting an abortion will make it harder to get pregnant in the future, or that it will increase the risk of breast cancer.

According to a report from The Guardian, data from the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows that one in 10 searches for abortion clinics in the 13 states where abortion access has become limited after the Supreme Court overturned the Wade decision show results for abortion providers.

Five or more of the top 10 search results in 13 states were accounted for by the cost per click. One-third of users pointed to CPCs when looking at the 149 search results that contained at least one word referring to medical healthcare.

Both sides of the abortion debate have put pressure on the search engine to reveal information about the procedure. A group of US lawmakers wrote a letter to Google in June, urging the company to take action on search results that lead abortion seekers toCPCs. 37 percent of abortion-related searches on Google Maps lead to non-legitimate clinics according to research from the CCDH. A group of Republican state attorneys general warned that the search engine shouldn't restrict results fromCPCs.

The congresswoman wrote a letter asking for the ability to write and read reviews for abortion clinics on the internet. It could be difficult for people seeking abortion care to get accurate, helpful information on the types of services they can access at these centers if reviews for both legitimate and anti- abortion clinics are disabled.

It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 At the end of the day,Penny Young Nance, the CEO and president of the conservative legislative action committee Concerned Women for America, says, they are trying to reach an audience by using phrases related to pregnant women.

Organizations that run ads about abortion have to certify that they actually perform the procedure. There is a "does not provide abortions" label on ads for non- medical locations. It is unclear if the information can be used to exclude Maps results for anti- abortion centers.

The company has extra layers of verification in place to make sure that Maps results are legit. The Verge asked for comment from the company, but they didn't reply.