Talk about being scared of the “competition”:
Google ads rely on the terms users enter to determine what ads appear on the pages of search results. However, one San Francisco mayoral candidate is not amused by a certain agency’s misleading ad buys on the search giant.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera has asked one anti-abortion center, First Resort, Inc., to stop buying ads that pop up when people are searching for abortion providers, reports SF Weekly.
The ads imply that the pregnancy crisis center performs abortions, when in fact they are trying to “achieve an abortion-free world.”
Herrera’s letter is partnered with legislation introduced at the Board of Supervisors meeting that would prohibit pregnancy service centers from misleading or lying to the public about their services. [NBC Bay Area]
“Misleading” and “lying” to the public? Those are very strong claims.
This is what one of First Resort’s ads looks like on Google:
As you can see, the ad never claims to be for an organization that provides abortions. FirstResort’s actual website welcomes you with this message:
First Resort is a Pregnancy Counseling Women’s Health Clinic. We provide counseling and medical care to women who are making decisions about unplanned pregnancies.
First Resort’s services are free of charge. Thanks to financial donations; we have been able to provide quality care to our clients at no charge for 25 years! Our focus is on helping women make healthy, well-informed choices in line with their own beliefs and values.
On their Options page they give three choices: abortion, pregnancy and adoption.
Now, I don’t agree with them offering abortion as even a potential option — it’s never the “right” choice — but it’s very clear this pregnancy counseling clinic wants to make sure women are informed about ALL the options.
Dennis Herrera, the mayoral candidate in San Francisco, clearly doesn’t want women to be given any choice except abortion.
So who is really misleading and lying? The pregnancy counseling clinic or Mr. Herrera?
Sadly, this disturbing trend of attempting to “crowd out” abortion alternatives from the public space (both on the internet and in the real world) isn’t limited to San Francisco.
[Cross-posted to CatholicVote.org]
