Facebook has posted “abortion investment” ads 18.4 million times since January 2020, according to a report by the Center for Digital Hate Countering (CCDH), which promotes an “unproven, unethical” procedure and dangerous”.
Google shows ads for more than four-fifths of abortion-related searches in several U.S. cities, according to CCDH research, targeting search terms such as “unwanted pregnancies” and “abortion pill” “.
The ads promote an unproven theoretical use of high doses of the hormone progesterone to “reverse” the effects of taking mifepristone, the first of a couple of drugs used in a medical abortion.
But there is a “lack of medical evidence to prove the safety and effectiveness of treatment,” according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and it can cause dangerous bleeding.
Despite this, eight states in the United States require people who want to have an abortion to be given information stating that this investment is an option. According to the study’s authors, these laws “fundamentally encourage women to participate in an uncontrolled research experiment.”
Imran Ahmed, executive director of CCDH, said: “It is disgusting that groups that want to undermine fundamental sexual and reproductive rights are able to spread misinformation to vulnerable women and girls. What’s worse: Facebook and Google make money with this propaganda.
“In the past, experts considered ads for the so-called ‘abortion pill investments’ potentially lethal and unethical medical information. That’s why you don’t see them on TV or in newspapers or good places. reputation.
“Facebook and Google must stop these ads, ban groups and users involved in their meeting, and give the contaminated money they have received to groups that protect fundamental sexual and reproductive rights.”
On Facebook, the platform’s own analytics show that up to 1.5 million users in the UK and 3 million in the Republic of Ireland could have been targeted by ads promoting the process, paid for by anti-abortion groups. SPUC in the UK and the UK. Life Institute in Ireland.
The policies of both companies should prohibit advertising. Google has rules that prohibit advertisers from promoting “misleading product information” and “non-government-approved products that are marketed in a way that implies they are safe or effective,” while Facebook prohibits ads from targeting 13 to 17-year-olds. years, although it featured a set of ads by the American group Live Action aimed at women under the age of 44 to at least 3,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States.
A Facebook spokesman said: “We removed many of the ads identified in the report, most of which were inactive and months or years ago, because they violated our policies for offering adult products and services.”
Google has been contacted for feedback.