Crisis Pregancy Centers

A deeper look at Google’s NARAL-influenced decision on CPC ads

By Dave Andrusko
Since yours truly, along with most of America, has not seen the “documentation” NARAL provided Google, it’s very difficult to evaluate NARAL’s allegation that most CPC ads are deceptive, according to Google’s own ad criteria.
If you add a post that appeared on the pro-abortion website rhrealitycheck.org yesterday, here’s what we can tease out.
#1. We know, according to a story in The Washington Post, that NARAL insists a whopping 79% of CPCs “that advertised on Google indicated that they provided medical services such as abortions, when, in fact, they are focused on counseling services and on providing information about alternatives to abortion.”
“Indicated,” “medical services,” “such as abortion” is awfully vague and could and no doubt does mean many different things, likely none of them the least bit nefarious.
In a different story in The Hill newspaper, we read that “NARAL logged a series of complaints with Google about ads that it claimed were deceptive, and spent the last month urging the company to take action,” wrote Julian Hattem earlier this week. “According to NARAL, more than two-thirds of the ads it passed along to Google were removed.” (emphasis added)

If you put these two figures together—and this is obviously guess work—it would suggest an awful lot of CPC Google ads no longer appear.But we don’t know, specifically, which ads have been taken down or removed. The real number may be a handful, or none. That’s #1.
#2. Major CPCs organizations have consistently denied they have done anything wrong, prior to the NARAL/Google agreement, and since. We asked Heartbeat International for a response. Here is part of it:

Heartbeat International is well-versed in using Google AdWords effectively with honesty and integrity, and we are thankful for every life saved because of our Option Line’s reach through Google.

Further, Google’s advertising policy has always prohibited “misleading, inaccurate and deceitful ads.” So does the Commitment of Care and Competence (CCC), the ethical guidelines promulgated by Heartbeat International and every other national pregnancy center organization.

Our CCC states: “All of our advertising and communication are truthful and honest and accurately describe the services we offer.”

#3. Again, I don’t have whatever it is NARAL provided Google, but consider this from Emily Crockett, a Reporting Fellow, in a story that ran Tuesday in RH Reality Check.

“There are some 4,000 CPCs in the United States, and their ads typically display the slogan ‘Pregnant? Scared? You’re not alone.’ NARAL found that 80 percent of Google searches for ‘abortion clinic’ performed in the 25 largest U.S. cities resulted in at least one crisis pregnancy center ad.”

Two things. First, on its webpage, NARAL has a photo of a bench with that language on it. We can only conclude, to NARAL, this is misleading. “Pregnant? Scared? You’re not alone.” That is “deceptive” or “misleading? In what universe?

Second, assume for the sake of argument that the second sentence is approximately accurate (BTW, I’m assuming the 80% refers to the same thing as the 79% in the Post story). If you go the 25 largest U.S. cities, there will be “at least” one ad for a crisis pregnancy center, 80% of the time.
NARAL wouldn’t use “at least one” unless in most instances it WAS only one. 80% of the time
How many abortion clinic ads appear on Google in these 25 largest cities? Many, I’ll bet, and they will appear 100% of the time.

And that’s assuming NARAL’s “analysis,” shared with Crockett is more-or-less accurate. Remember what Heartbeat International said.
#4. As is always the case with the Abortion Establishment, which has tons of money and is able (as NARAL has) to persuade like-minded city and council councils to go after CPCs, you have to look at the big picture.

NARAL has had very limited success in the courts with patently unconstitutional statutes mandating that CPCs say they do not perform abortions. They are trying with Google—with clear implications they will be going after other search engines—to accomplish what they been unable to persuade most courts to do: throttle CPCs.
Remember, NARAL will do anything, stoop to anything, to kill off CPCs.

Source: NRLC News