["People generally tend to consider Googles search engine as an
equalizer... but thats just not the case," said one researcher.
"Lower-income women are being targeted, and theyre the ones that are
going to suffer the most."]
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GOOGLE TARGETS LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WITH ADS FOR ‘FAKE ABORTION
CLINICS’: STUDY  
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Kenny Stancil
February 7, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ "People generally tend to consider Google's search engine as an
equalizer... but that's just not the case," said one researcher.
"Lower-income women are being targeted, and they're the ones that are
going to suffer the most." _

Problem Pregnancy, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, is
located near a Planned Parenthood center in Worcester, Massachusetts.,
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Image

 

Research published Monday shows that Google is targeting lower-income
users with advertisements for so-called crisis pregnancy centers,
anti-choice organizations known to steer people away from accessing
abortion care.

As the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), which conducted the analysis,
explained
[[link removed]]:
"Crisis pregnancy centers—which critics have dubbed 'fake abortion
clinics
[[link removed]]'—appear
to offer medical services but instead push an anti-abortion message,
providing free ultrasounds and baby supplies with the aim of
persuading women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Abortion
rights advocates accuse them of using deceptive tactics to get women
in the door—and targeting their advertising
[[link removed]]
at low-income women and women of color in urban areas."

For its investigation, TTP established Google accounts for test users
in Phoenix, Arizona; Atlanta, Georgia; and Miami, Florida. The users
were characterized as 21-year-old women belonging to three different
household income groups as defined by Google: average- or
lower-income, moderately high-income, and high-income. While logged
into each account, researchers entered 15 abortion-related search
terms, including "Abortion clinic near me" and "I want an abortion,"
and then recorded ads that appeared on the first five pages of
results. Researchers used a Google Chrome browser with no previous
history, and they used virtual private networks to make it look like
the users were conducting searches from their respective cities.

TTP found that Google showed ads for crisis pregnancy centers to women
on the lower end of the income scale at a higher rate than their
wealthier counterparts in two of the three cities. In Phoenix,
average- or lower-income women saw 56% of ads come from crisis
pregnancy centers, higher than what moderately high-income women (41%)
and high-income women (7%) saw. In Atlanta, 42% of the ads targeted at
average- or lower-income women came from crisis pregnancy centers,
more than Google showed to moderately high-income women (18%) and
high-income women (29%).

"By pointing low-income women to [crisis pregnancy centers] more
frequently than higher-income women in states with restrictive laws,
Google may delay these women from finding an actual abortion clinic to
get a legal and safe abortion," TTP director Katie Paul told
[[link removed]]_The
Guardian _on Tuesday.

"The time window is critical in some of these states," said Paul.

Abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Arizona and Florida.
In Georgia, abortion is banned after six weeks, before many people
know they are pregnant.

Because it can cost thousands of dollars in lost wages, child care,
transportation, and lodging, lower-income people are less likely to be
able to travel for abortion care.

Women on the lower end of the income scale did not receive ads for
crisis pregnancy centers at the highest rate in every city in TTP's
study. In Miami, researchers observed an inverse pattern: high-income
women saw a larger share of ads from anti-abortion organizations (39%)
than moderately high-income women (10%) and average- or lower-income
women (15%).

"It's not clear why Miami diverged from the other cities, but one
possibility is that crisis pregnancy centers, which often seek to
delay women's abortion decisions
[[link removed]]
until they are past the legal window for the procedure, are more
actively targeting lower-income women in states like Arizona and
Georgia, which have more restrictive abortion laws
[[link removed]]
than Florida," TTP hypothesized. Although Republican lawmakers in
Arizona and Florida have both prohibited abortion after 15 weeks,
Arizona's ban comes with heightened restrictions.

Still, even if high-income women in Miami received more crisis
pregnancy center ads on the top five pages of search results, that
doesn't mean those are the ones they saw first. Ad rank is
significant, and according to TTP, Google showed ads for anti-abortion
organizations "higher up in the search results for lower-income women
than it did for women of other income levels," as shown below.

 

[In Miami, the first ad shown to an average- or lower-income Google
user searching for \u2018Abortion clinic near me' is for a crisis
pregnancy center.]
 
In Miami, the first ad shown to an average- or lower-income Google
user searching for ‘Abortion clinic near me' is for a crisis
pregnancy center.(Photo: Tech Transparency Project)

 

[In Miami, the first three ads shown to a moderately high-income
Google user searching for \u2018Abortion clinic near me' are for
abortion providers.]
 
In Miami, the first three ads shown to a moderately high-income Google
user searching for ‘Abortion clinic near me' are for abortion
providers.(Photo: Tech Transparency Project)

 

[In Miami, the first ad shown to a high-income Google user searching
for \u2018Abortion clinic near me' is for an abortion provider.]
 
In Miami, the first ad shown to a high-income Google user searching
for ‘Abortion clinic near me' is for an abortion provider. (Photo:
Tech Transparency Project)

The search terms used are also important. Several queries in TTP's
experiment yielded only crisis pregnancy center ads for lower-income
women.

"Although companies buying ads with Google can selectively target the
groups they want to reach–including by income–Paul adds that many
users won't be aware they are being targeted by Google in this way,"
_The Guardian_ reported.

"Google has a large share of influence, particularly in the United
States when people are trying to search for authoritative
information," Paul explained. "People generally tend to consider
Google's search engine as an equalizer. They think the results they
get are the results that everyone's going to get. But that's just not
the case."

"Lower-income women are being targeted," she said, "and they're the
ones that are going to suffer the most under these policies."

As TTP pointed out: "Google is helping these centers reach their
intended audience. Abortion rights groups
[[link removed]]
and academic studies
[[link removed]] have noted
that crisis pregnancy centers typically target women of lower
socioeconomic classes, in part by advertising free services on public
transportation and in bus shelters."

Crisis pregnancy centers have sought to expand their reach
[[link removed]]
since the U.S. Supreme Court's far-right majority overturned
[[link removed]]_Roe
v. Wade_ last summer.

These facilities have "been known to employ a number of shady tactics
to convince women seeking an abortion to keep their pregnancies," _The
Guardian _noted. "Those include posing as abortion clinics
[[link removed]]
online though they do not offer abortion care, refusing pregnancy
tests for women who say they intend to have an abortion, and touting
widely disputed research about abortion care to patients
[[link removed]].
Crisis centers,which go largely unregulated despite offering medical
services, have been known to target low-income women
[[link removed]] precisely
because they find it harder to travel out of state for abortion care."

Previous reports have shown
[[link removed]] that
Google is increasingly aiding these anti-abortion organizations,
particularly in the GOP-led states that eliminated
[[link removed]]
reproductive freedom as soon as the constitutional right to abortion
was revoked.

TTP's new findings "add to growing questions about Google's handling
of crisis pregnancy centers," the group wrote. "_Bloomberg News_ has
reported that Google Maps routinely misdirected users
[[link removed]]
searching for abortion clinics to crisis pregnancy centers and that
Google often failed to affix a warning
[[link removed]],
as promised, to crisis pregnancy center ads indicating they do not
provide abortions. (In response to the first report, Google pledged
[[link removed]]
to clearly label U.S. facilities that provide abortions in Google Maps
and search results.)"

"Last fall, TTP also found that Google frequently served ads for
crisis pregnancy centers that falsely suggest they offer abortions
[[link removed]],
violating the platform's policy against advertising that misleads
users," the group noted.

During its new investigation, "TTP found similar omissions in multiple
ads."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.
Kenny Stancil [[link removed]]

Kenny Stancil is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

* Google Ads for Fake Abortion Clinics; Pregnancy Centers;
Anti-Abortion Groups;
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