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Google blocks abortion ads

Published: July 07, 2009

Search engine giant Google is apparently disallowing advertisements for abortion businesses in several nations, some of which prohibit abortions and some of which don't.

The rational behind the Google decision remained unclear, which abortion advocates are blasting, LifeNews reports.

Pro-abortion activist Lori Adelman corresponded with a staff member at Google who confirmed the denial of abortion advertising.

While ads for abortion are allowed in many nations, such as the United States, Google appears to have banned them in countries such as Brazil, France, Mexico, Poland, and Taiwan.

While nations like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Poland protect women and children, others such as France and Taiwan allow abortions.

"Last September, we reviewed our abortion ads policy in order to make sure it was fair, up to date and consistent with local customs and practices," the staffer told Adelman. "We decided to disallow ads for abortion services, such as abortion clinics, in the following markets: Germany, Poland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, France, Italy and Spain."

"However, general factual ads on abortion continued to be allowed and we also enabled religious associations to place ads on abortion in a factual way," the Google staffer said.

The latter comment appears to be a response to concerns from pro-life advocates in England and elsewhere that their ads were facing denial from Google.

Asked for further clarification from Adelman why the specific countries were selected for disallowing ads for abortions, the Google staffer did not provide a specific answer.

"I can share that we conducted the review and made the change to ensure our policy was fair, up to date, consistent with local laws and codes of practice," the staffer said.

That frustrated Adelman, who wrote on the pro-abortion blog Feministing that she "never thought I'd be taking sides in the war of the search engines."

"Google's rationale behind disallowing ads in these particular countries ... is shrouded in mystery: the spokeswoman deftly avoided answering my question about how the countries were chosen," she lamented.

FULL STORY @

Google AdWords Disallows Advertising for Abortion Businesses in Several Nations (LifeNews.com)

Google AdWords Policy Disallows Ads for Abortion Services in Over a Dozen Countries (Feministing.com)

 

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Recent Comments

  1. Abortion commercial ads are thoroughly immoral, to make a tragedy into a business is just so wrong; I might not agree with those nuts in the so called 'pro-life' camp, I won’t go with this immoral capitalistic pro-death business either, I will continue to give and support women and men to give life whenever and that we -the community will care and take responsibility for the life of an unborn too and share the burden.

  2. It seems that Google has a conscience and a respect for life! Thank God!

  3. To TJ Lawson:

    So those in the pro-life movement are 'nuts'? Is this another of your loving and inclusive statements, or just another of your hateful, hypocritical, sinful, judgemental rants?

  4. Abortionists want to kill children in their mother's womb in a savage way. No human being should be implicated in advertising such hideous practice.

  5. Michael Bernard, I'm talking about the likes of yourself, 'nuts' are quite crunchy sometimes, great nutritious food when you can pass the ugly shell.

  6. I applaud Google's move to block abortion adverts for those countries! My question is, as echoed in the article, "why THOSE countries?" Wouldn't it be simpler to ban them in all countries?

    I'm not complaining, not at all. It's a great step to take, good for Google for taking it!

  7. Google...you have done the correct thing and I applaud you for your corporate good sense and moral stance for Life! God bless you all.....

  8. Thank you Google for taking the high road! Many prayers for life are being answered in unexpected ways.

  9. I will now be proud to use google's services. Thank God that they do not have the same innocent blood on their hands that our government does

  10. Praise and all thanksgiving to GOOGLE for banning ads for abortion, the destruction of human life. May Google continue to buck the tide against the right of the unborn.

  11. Kudos to Google. The world needs leaders and sensible organizations like GOOGLE.
    We appreciate this initiative to stop murder.
    Thank you Google.

    Narayan, India.

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