Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is among the 17 Republican AGs who signed a letter threatening Google with an anti-trust investigation if it censors abortion search results to eliminate pregnancy crisis centers.
“We must not allow Google to succumb to political pressure,” Schmitt said. “Pregnancy crisis centers provide helpful, free services to women in need across the country – to censor their locations or information in searches deprives women and expectant mothers of those services and infringes on freedom of speech.”
The AGs ask in their July 21 letter, “Has Google taken, or will Google take, any steps to treat crisis pregnancy centers any differently with regard to Google search results, Google Ads, Google Maps, or any other Google service than they were treated before the leak of the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization? If so, what steps have you taken, or will you take?”
Schmitt participated in the correspondence in response to a June 17 letter signed by a cadre of 23 Democrat Senators and members of Congress asking what steps Google CEO Sundar Pichai would take to limit the appearance of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers in Google search results for abortion.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Congresswoman Elissa Slotnick (D-MI) are leading the effort.
“Sen. Warner believes that Google should not continue to allow these fake, anti-abortion clinics to deceive users in need of abortion care and – at the very least – apply appropriate labels to all organic search and map results,” said Valeria Rivadeneira, a spokesperson in Warner’s Washington, D.C. office.
Pregnancy crisis centers are different from abortion centers in that they provide resources for women who choose to carry their babies to full term.
Former AG for the state of Indiana Curtis Hill, a Republican, commended his party colleagues for taking a stand for free speech.
“This is one of the important contributions that the state's attorneys general make to the consumer process,” Hill told the St. Louis Record. “This is a watchdog process that hopefully will ensure that Google behaves itself. It does appear to have a partisan nature, which is unfortunate, but I think that the 17 or so attorneys general that have made this request are on firm footing from my perspective.”