WED 7AM: Plane Flies Over Google Shareholder Meeting Reading: “SEARCHING FOR ABORTION CARE? GOOGLE LIES”
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Wednesday, June 6, 7:00 – 9:00 AM PT
CONTACT: Madison Donzis | madison@unbendablemedia.com | (210) 488-6220
WED 7AM: Plane Flies Over Google Shareholder Meeting Reading: “SEARCHING FOR ABORTION CARE? GOOGLE LIES”
UltraViolet, CREDO, NARAL, Planned Parenthood Pen Open Letter to Google CEO Demanding an End to Sham Anti-Abortion Clinics on its Search Engine, Map Results for Women Seeking Abortions
Mountain View, CA — This Wednesday, June 6, from 7:00 – 9:00 AM PT, UltraViolet, a leading women’s advocacy organization, will fly a plane banner over Google’s annual shareholder meeting demanding that the tech giant remove its fake, anti-abortion clinic results in Google Search and Google Maps, as well as advertisements, that show up when individuals search for abortion care. The banner will read:
SEARCHING FOR ABORTION CARE? GOOGLE LIES
WHERE: Google Annual Shareholder Meeting, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA
WHEN: Wednesday, June 6, from 7:00 – 9:00 AM PT
In addition to the banner, UltraViolet organized a letter signed by 20 organizations who advocate for better access to reproductive health care and abortion, to be sent to Google’s CEO, imploring him to take immediate steps to correct misleading Google ads that lure millions of women searching for health care clinics to sham clinics that provide inaccurate medical care. Organizations who have signed onto the letter include: Advocates For Youth, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Broward County NOW, CREDO Action, Feminist Majority Foundation, Hadassah, MoveOn.org, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Abortion Federation, National Institute for Reproductive Health, National Women’s Health Network, National Women’s Law Center, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood, Pro Choice Coalition of Broward, Progress Florida, ReproAction, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US (SIECUS), UltraViolet, and URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity.
SEE THE LETTER HERE: https://d2486uwqr5x79k.cloudfront.net/images/Letter_to_Google_regarding_crisis_pregnancy_center_ads_FINAL.pdf
“Let’s call crisis pregnancy centers what they really are: sham abortion clinics that push an extremist, anti-choice agenda onto millions of innocent women who seek out reproductive health care every day via Google’s search engines,” said Shaunna Thomas, Executive Director of UltraViolet.
“Decisions regarding a woman’s body are to be made between her and her doctor. All women should rest assured—particularly throughout challenging times, and when in need of urgent medical care—that they are being provided with quality care and accurate medical information. That’s why it is imperative that Google work to put an end to the fraudulent tactics of crisis pregnancy centers and their entrapment of women, and scrub its search engine of their advertisements. Abortion care is health care, and Google must ensure its abortion ads and results are accurate.”
The plane banner and letter come as the Supreme Court is set to release a decision this month in 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.
Earlier this month during the Google I/O developer festival, activists with UltraViolet, and CREDO, a progressive advocacy organization, held a protest and delivered a petition with over 100,000 signatures, demanding the tech company remove its CPC Search ads and Map results. The groups also held a massive light projection later that evening near the festival in Mountain View. The light projection read: “Google, stop lying to women. No to fake, anti-abortion clinics.”
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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