By: Emily Hur

Last week, U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to Google asking the company to fix search results that guide users to ‘fake clinics’ that do not perform abortions and try to talk customers out of getting the procedure.

Twenty-one members of Congress sent the letter a week before the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. The U.S. lawmakers were concerned about the case and urged Google to quickly rectify their mistake before states started to implement “trigger laws.”

While fake abortion clinics are located all around the country, they are especially relevant to “trigger law” states. When the government overturned Roe v. Wade yesterday morning, these states immediately established state laws that ban abortion. Currently, about half of the country either has abortion laws or are planning to implement them.

Laws can vary between states. According to Becky Sullivan from NPR, some only restrict when women can get an abortion while others prohibit the procedure entirely. States with restrictions allow around 6 to 8 weeks after pregnancy to abort the baby.

Many women who want an abortion search up nearby medical clinics to perform the procedure. However, there are numerous organizations on the internet that trick women and lure them in only to dissuade them from getting an abortion. Researchers have found that top search results on Google lead to such organizations.

The ‘fake clinics’ not only use Google to promote themselves, but also to spread false information. The National Institute for Reproductive Health, or NIRH, found that “13% claimed abortion was linked to breast cancer and future infertility, and 25% warned it could cause ‘post-abortion syndrome’ and other health complications.” These claims have no medical proof and have no connections to abortion.

Fake abortion centers often call themselves “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers.” Employees are usually anti-abortion volunteers who attempt to trick women out of getting the procedure. They cover their intentions and fake their legitimacy by “offering services such as pregnancy tests, biased counseling, and ultrasounds,” NIRH says.

Those who wrote the letter believe that Google should provide accurate data in their search engine to give women control of their bodies not false facts. “People have a right to hold an opinion on abortion,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told The Washington Post. “But it’s [their] use of deception that makes it so malignant.”