Activists Crash Google I/O Developer Festival w. Petition Delivery, Evening Projection, Demanding Company Remove ‘Fake Anti-Abortion Clinic’ Search Results & Ads
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Tuesday, May 8th, 2018
CONTACT: Yasmina Dardari | yasmina@unbendablemedia.com | +1 (407) 922-8149
TUESDAY: Activists Crash Google I/O Developer Festival with Petition Delivery, Nighttime Projection Demanding the Company Remove ‘Fake, Anti-Abortion Clinic’ Google Search Results, Ads
CREDO and UltraViolet Say Google Ads Directing Women to Fake Abortion Clinics Put ‘Lives at Risk’
Mountain View, CA— On Tuesday, May 8th, as day one of the Google I/O developer festival is underway, activists with UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, and CREDO, a progressive advocacy organization, will hold a protest and deliver a petition with over 100,000 signatures ahead of CEO Sundar Pichai’s morning keynote, demanding the tech company remove its ‘fake, anti-abortion clinic’ Google search ads.
VIEW THE PETITIONS HERE: https://act.weareultraviolet.
CREDO LINK: https://act.credoaction.com/
The groups will also hold a massive light projection later that evening at various locations near Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View.
WHEN: Wednesday, May 8th. The protest and petition delivery will begin at 9 AM PT at Charleston Park. The nighttime light projection will begin at 9 PM PT across from the Taube Koret Campus Building, corner of San Antonio and East Charleston.
WHERE (Protest): Googleplex | Charleston Park | 1500 Charleston Rd, Mountain View, California
WHERE (Projection): Beginning at the Taube Koret Campus Building, corner of San Antonio and East Charleston.
THE LIGHT PROJECTION TEXT WILL READ: “Google, stop lying to women. No to fake, anti-abortion clinics.”
VIEW AN IMAGE OF THE LIGHT PROJECTION HERE: https://d2486uwqr5x79k.
The petition delivery and light projection come as the Supreme Court considers NIFLA v. Becerra. The case concerns a 2015 California law that requires so-called ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’ (CPCs)—sham medical facilities that provide counseling meant to discourage women from having abortions—in the state to notify patients whether they actually have a medical license. Oftentimes open and advertising near legitimate women’s health clinics to trick women, fake clinics lure women into their centers to manipulate and/or harass them out of getting an abortion. Fake clinic staff pose as medical professionals and tell women medically disproven lies, such as false claims that abortion leads to mental illness, infertility, and breast cancer.
An investigative report published in February by Gizmodo revealed that Google searches for abortion services direct users to these fake women’s health clinics across the United States, with Google Maps frequently suggesting ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers’ in search results. UltraViolet and CREDO say that Google is complicit in misleading women by allowing these results as well as ads from fake clinics on Google Search and Maps.
Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, explained:
“Millions of women rely on Google for honest, accurate information to find legitimate reproductive health care facilities. Google is complicit in luring vulnerable, pregnant women to anti-abortion centers posing as legitimate reproductive health clinics that deceive, lie to, and shame them out of abortions. By running sham abortion clinic ads and ignoring misleading results on Search and Maps, Google fuels this industry of deceit and puts women’s health and lives at risk. Users trust Google to be an honest broker here. The company must take action immediately to uphold its advertising policy and ensure abortion care search results are accurate.
Heidi Hess, Co-Director of CREDO Action, added:
“Let’s be clear: Crisis pregnancy centers are right-wing scams that endanger women’s lives. They do not offer any health care and lie to women seeking abortion and birth control. Google removed CPC ads four years ago saying they were ‘misleading and deceitful.’ We need Google to keep its word now, take down these ads once and for all and stop helping these fake health clinics entrap and lie to women.”
For more information, please contact Yasmina Dardari at +1-(407) 922-8149 or by email at yasmina@unbendablemedia.com.
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UltraViolet is an online community of over 1,000,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media. Find out more at weareultraviolet.org
CREDO Action is a social change network of 5 million activists organizing and mobilizing for progressive change. Find out more at credoaction.com