Pro-abortion campaigners cycled mobile billboards behind Google employee shuttle buses
Pro-abortion campaigners followed Google employees on their way to work with an accusatory statement printed on a mobile billboard.
In yet another example of aggressive demands for anti-life censorship, pro-abortion campaigners cycled mobile billboards behind Google employee shuttle buses in San Francisco, declaring the accusation that "Google will send you to fake, anti-abortion clinics".
Pregnancy help centres (also referred to as crisis pregnancy centres) offer women a free pregnancy test and an opportunity to receive counselling on all the options available, particularly for a pregnant woman who may be vulnerable to an abortion. Pregnancy help centres buy Google Ads to advertise their services to women who may be most likely to need them, while they are searching on Google services like Maps.
According to Business Insider, Karin Roland, chief campaigns officer for pro-abortion group UltraViolet, said her organisation has been lobbying Google to remove pregnancy centres from Google search results and Google Maps for four years.
In addition to harassing employees on the way to work, the groups also protested Google’s annual developer conference yesterday, with a petition and light projections reading: "Google, stop lying to women. No to fake, anti-abortion clinics."
John Smeaton, SPUC chief executive, commented: "The pro-abortion lobby is so determined to champion the business interests of the abortion industry, they will stop at nothing in preventing women around the word from having the chance of choosing life through the compassionate work of pro-life agencies."
Censoring life-saving services
While Google Maps is attacked for not restricting their advertising service from pro-life groups, another Google service has been called out for active censorship of a potentially life-saving message.
YouTube has recently suspended the Abortion Pill Reversal account, citing its policy on "harmful or dangerous content". Examples of videos that violate this policy are videos about "instructional bomb making, choking games, hard drug use, or other acts where serious injury may result."
This is not the first time that YouTube has been criticised for censoring pro-life material, after their removal of an exposé video of Planned Parenthood employees arranging a sale of body parts.
Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List calls out YouTube on this decision, "We are calling on You Tube to stop censoring life-saving information for women who may want to reverse abortions after they've taken the first pill during a chemical abortion," says Quigley. "This is a legitimate medical protocol that has saved hundreds of babies' lives, and saved hundreds of women from experiencing the regret and physical suffering that comes with abortion."
Irish Referendum Targeted
In a recent unprecedented development, Facebook has decided to ban adverts targeting Ireland relating to the upcoming abortion referendum.
Facebook has not applied such a policy to British elections or referendums.
The BBC notes that "there had been worries that foreign ads could influence the result of the vote". Near the end of last year, Amnesty International illegally accepted a €137,000 grant from George Soros' Open Society Foundation. Their work in Ireland includes the promotion of abortion.
Facebook’s decision to block foreign ads will not affect the advertising of organisations based in the country, who could still be funded by foreign sources, leaving Amnesty International's aggressive pro-abortion campaigns in Ireland completely intact.
A spokeswoman for Facebook told the BBC that the social media site did not have any similar plans in other countries to make public at present.
She added, "We are looking closely at all elections and determining what steps we can take."
The abortion tide is turning
On a more positive note, a recent report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights on free speech in universities has highlighted the censorship faced by pro-life student groups on campus. The Committee started an inquiry into the issue following a number of high-profile reports of events being shut down or disrupted, which led to the minister for higher education telling universities they have a legal duty to uphold free speech.
At Saturday’s March for Life, attendees heard from Clare McCullough of the Good Counsel Network who, like pregnancy help centres, also offer alternatives to women seeking out abortion. The GCN have recently had a buffer zone imposed on one of their pro-life vigils.
Mrs McCullough ended with an encouraging comment. While noting the continued presence of opposition to pro-life work in her observation of pro-abortion counter-protesters at the March, Mrs McCullough pointed out that "[the pro-life movement stands] with the media not on our side, with our Parliament largely not on our side, with our laws totally not on our side. It makes no sense to protest us unless they fear that the abortion tide is already turning."
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