The Greens will demand an explanation from Google over its decision to ban medical abortion ads in Australia, and push to have the appear at the upcoming Universal access to reproductive healthcare Senate inquiry.
Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters said:
“Google’s blanket ban on abortion ads is an outrageous restriction of women’s rights, and further evidence of the lack of access to reproductive healthcare in this country. It must be overturned immediately.
“We’ll be writing to Google to demand the ban is overturned, and push for a representative to appear at the upcoming Senate inquiry so that we can question why and how the ban on abortion ads happened in the first place.
“When you Google the inquiry, a promoted snippet – with my name in it – equating abortion to murder from an anti-choice organisation is the first result. It is beyond belief that Google is OK having this sort of misinformation promoted at the top of its search results, but is banning ads for a basic health service.
“MSI Australia suggest the ban could be impacting up to 1500 people per week. This is unacceptable and the ban must be lifted immediately.”