After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson decision on June 24, a pro-abortion panic truly picked up. It not just from activists, but from members of Congress, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and powerful Big Tech companies, like Yelp. As Madeline covered last month, Yelp flagged pro-life pregnancy centers by adding a "consumer notice" to their listings. Lawmakers though, are fighting back in the form of a letter, led by Rep. John Carter (R-TX) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), which Townhall received an exclusive look at.
In a letter addressed to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, the lawmakers reference the "consumer notice" label in question that claims these centers "provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite."
"While some PRCs do not provide medical care, many provide quality care for women and children that exceeds services offered by most abortion clinics. Across the country, roughly 25 percent of full-time staff at PRCs are medical professionals, and approximately 10,215 licensed medical professionals either work or volunteer their time at these centers," the letter points out.
It also highlights Yelp's stubbornness. "We understand that Yelp refuses to remove this consumer notice label even after PRCs have offered to provide copies of medical licenses and a full accounting of medical services provided. We have also been told that Yelp blocked PRCs from portions of their business accounts and removed their ability to update their descriptions of their services," the letter reads. "This prevents PRCs from prominently displaying the important medical services they do provide."
Unfortunately, such a move is not surprising given what Yelp higher-ups have said about these life-affirming centers that offer a wide array of options to women seeking alternatives to abortion.
As Madeline included in her reporting, citing a statement sent to Axios, Noorie Malik, Yelp’s vice president of user operations, claimed these resource centers are "unjust" and "misleading."
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"After learning about the misleading nature of crisis pregnancy centers back in 2018, I’m grateful Yelp stands behind these efforts to provide consumers with access to reliable information about reproductive health services," Malik told Axios in an email. "It has always felt unjust to me that there are clinics in the U.S. that provide misleading information or conduct deceptive tactics to steer pregnant people away from abortion care if that’s the path they choose to take," she also claimed.
In conclusion, the lawmakers told Stoppelman that they "urge you to immediately stop this deceptive labeling practice and to remove artificial barriers that stand in the way of getting valid medical treatment to mothers and unborn children. Yelp customers deserve to have access to accurate information as they make health care decisions for their families."
Rep. Banks, who serves as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), said in a statement that "Yelp’s website claims they 'work hard to maintain our community’s trust.' However, their deceptive actions to mislabel and slander pregnancy resources centers that provide life-saving care to vulnerable mothers proves Yelp is much more devoted to advancing the Left’s radical pro-abortion agenda than to maintaining community trust."
The letter's co-signers include Reps. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Randy Weber (R-TX), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Van Taylor (R-TX), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Andy Harris, M.D. (R-MD), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Bob Good (R-VA), Alex Mooney (R-WV), Dr. Brian Babin (R-TX), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jeff Duncan (R-SC) Mary E. Miller (R-IL), Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), Ronny L. Jackson, M.D. (R-TX), and Troy E. Nehls (R-TX).
Rep. Carter also pointed out that "Yelp’s refusal to provide accurate information about the services offered by Pregnancy Resource Centers even after the centers have offered to submit copies of medical licenses and a full accounting of medical services provided, proves they are more interested in promoting the left’s pro-abortion ideology than providing consumers with accurate information" and charged that "Yelp’s deceptive actions are putting mothers and unborn children at risk."
The company also offers to pay expenses for employees and their partners to travel out of state to obtain abortions, as Madeline covered back in April.
Yelp is located in San Francisco. In California, and many other blue states, Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom have been seeking to expand abortion, with Newsom determined to make California a "sanctuary." Newsom even recently released billboard ads in red states, which included Bible verses, to invite women seeking abortions to travel out-of-state to California.
The New York Times also reported in April that Yelp has some employees in Texas, which had a law in place at the time banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat has been detected at around six weeks. Since Dobbs, Texas has banned most abortions.
Yelp is not alone, though, in using its power to promote a pro-abortion message at the expense of silencing the opposition.
Ultraviolet has pressed Google to refuse ads from such centers. YouTube also caved to pressure from the group and announced that it would remove what biased pro-abortion groups claimed was "misinformation" related to the issue.
Google has not been doing enough, though, according to a group known as the Tech Transparency Project, an initiative of Campaign for Accountability (CfA).
NEW: Google’s ad policies prohibit misrepresentation that can deceive users.
— Tech Transparency Project (@TTP_updates) September 29, 2022
But a TTP report shows that the company is allowing “crisis pregnancy centers” to run ads that falsely suggest they offer abortions—to lure unsuspecting users. https://t.co/gFQEsDoxRM
An email press release from CfA very much suggests a pro-abortion sentiment with language such as "The ads identified by TTP suggest they can help women obtain an abortion but link to fake clinics that try to encourage women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term."
Pro-life lawmakers are seeking to protect these pregnancy resource centers and stand up to Big Tech at all levels, though. Virginia's Attorney General Jason Miyares led a letter of 17 attorney generals addressed to Google for how they too have been censoring pregnancy resource centers. Miyares has appeared at RSC events in the past.
In a statement for Townhall about the letter sent to Yelp, Miyares indicated that "American consumers expect diversity of opinion and thought. Elected leaders from every branch of government need to take a stand and make it known that Big Tech companies cannot silence voices different from their own." He also communicated support for these centers. "Crisis pregnancy centers are private charities serving their communities and offering support to women in need. The idea that these Big Tech industry leaders would succumb to political pressure and censor them is appalling and un-American."
Townhall also spoke with Miyares last month, and he certainly did not shy away from expressing outrage about the censorship of pregnancy centers, especially as it applies to Sen. Warren' relentlessness.
He emphasized that a bill she introduced to fine such centers out of existence was "ridiculous." Miyares passionately shared "that's shocking to me, that a United States Senator would say that a private entity, a private charity that receives private funding, doesn't even have a right to exist. That is shocking," he repeated. "That is utterly shocking that you would have a United States Senator saying a private, a private charity that receives private funding for a private citizen that wants to help pregnant women in their time of need doesn't even have a right to exist." He assured that if her bill ever becomes law he "would challenge that in a heartbeat."
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