Google overhauls its search results for abortion clinics after leading some users astray
Google said Thursday it was overhauling its search engine and maps app to make it easier for people to find abortion clinics, after criticism that the tech
SAN FRANCISCO — Google said Thursday it was overhauling its search engine and maps app to make it easier for people to find abortion clinics, after criticism that the tech company was steering users toward crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion rights.
News organizations have reported since at least 2018 and as recently as this month that Google was leading women seeking abortions astray with its search and map results.
Now, Google said it was making improvements to how it displays results and context, with labels that the company has verified such as “Provides abortions” or “Might not provide abortions.”
“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,” the Bay Area-based company said in a statement.
An example of how Google Search will now display an abortion-related query.Google“We get confirmation that places provide a particular service in a number of ways, including regularly calling businesses directly and working with authoritative data sources,” Google said. “We followed our standard testing and evaluation process to confirm that these updates are more helpful for people.”
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