This week Yelp announced that it has been and will continue recategorizing pregnancy centers as "faith-based crisis pregnancy centers," making the unilateral decision based on its interpretation of services provided by the centers.
This announcement resulted in many news articles, but in reality, the online business directory’s tactic is not new.
In the past, Yelp targeted pregnancy centers in California, tagging them as “faith-based crisis pregnancy centers” without their consent.
In some cases, this overrides the categories that suited them better, such as adoption.
Pregnancy help centers there did not care for being defined by an entity that did not have their best interest at heart. And who could blame them? Yelp was actively misrepresenting them, and eliminated their voice, allowing them no say in classifying themselves.
California centers sought recourse with Yelp to no avail.
As is often the case, as goes California, so goes the nation. This was just the precursor for what was to come.
What is new is that Yelp is now adding a "Consumer Notice" to the pregnancy center reviews across the board.
This is unprecedented and has the clear intention of dissuading women from contacting them.
The notice is a blanket statement and does not delineate between pregnancy resource centers and pregnancy help medical clinics.
To put it plainly: Yelp used this week’s announcement to make a political statement. And it is one that takes aim at pregnancy help organizations.
Logic tells us that the organization operating the pregnancy center has a better idea of the services they offer rather than a Yelp employee with an agenda.
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For full transparency, Yelp should disclose from where it received this list of pregnancy help organizations it is now labeling with this “consumer notice.”
Unfortunately, Yelp has made it known for years that as a company it advocates for abortion.
It even goes as far as to pay for its employees to obtain out-of-state abortions.
Ironically, in its quest to label pregnancy centers so that women only see abortion providers when seeking pregnancy help, Yelp actually negates any semblance of "choice."
It is disappointing that Big Tech companies such as Yelp have kowtowed to pro-abortion politicians and lobbyists' demands to keep a woman from receiving information on all her pregnancy questions.
For a company that classify itself as "pro-choice" it is certainly doing everything in its power to give women facing unexpected pregnancies only one choice - abortion.
Every woman deserves compassionate care and practical support when facing an unplanned pregnancy and that is what women find at their local pregnancy help organization at little to no cost. With more than 2,700 pregnancy help locations nationwide, Yelp has taken it upon itself to suppress women from finding true help locally because they disagree with a decision by the Supreme Court.
In reality, Yelp is out of touch with the American people. A recent Real Clear Politics poll shows that nearly two-thirds of all Americans support the work of pregnancy centers and yet they choose to label them in way that hinders women finding them. Yelp has unilaterally determined that they know what is best for women. Women deserve better.
The abortion lobby and its allies are doing everything in their power to limit the reach of pregnancy centers, and why?
Pregnancy help centers set the standard for true compassion and support for women.
Women who utilize these pregnancy help services overwhelmingly give pregnancy centers satisfactory ratings for the care they receive.
We know this because it is the truth. And truth always prevails.
Women are smart and capable beings - they do not need Yelp to tell them where to go when they are pregnant.
Andrea Trudden is VP of Communications at Heartbeat International.
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