Nowadays, everyone researches everything over the internet. Need to buy a new car? Search hundreds of websites for the exact vehicle you want at a dealer or private party near you. You can specify the model, make, year, and even the color of the vehicle you want and save yourself hours of trekking through car dealerships. But have you noticed what happens after you do your internet search? Suddenly, your web search and email pages are populated with car ads, all with exactly the car you have been looking for.
You get it. This is how search engines work: when you are looking for something online, sites like Google track your search data so that their “analytics” can get to work targeting ads just for you. In some cases, this might even be helpful – maybe you’ll finally find that exact car, house, or dishwasher you want to buy. But what if you are searching for something more sensitive – like making a medical appointment to obtain an abortion? That’s not exactly the sort of information you want to share with some giant search engine company. Well, that is apparently what has been happening.
Planned Parenthood is Sharing Your Information With Google and Facebook
According to several reputable sources, Planned Parenthood has been allowing Google and other big tech companies like Facebook and TikTok to track user information for visitors to its website. The scan includes Planned Parenthood’s appointment scheduling page, where users input sensitive information, including the type of services they are requesting and the closest Planned Parenthood facility to their location. The data collected includes the user’s IP address.
Why would Planned Parenthood allow this? Because it helps them to market their services. In other words, Planned Parenthood works with Google because it helps them bring in more clients and more revenue. If they can target their online marketing, it’s better for business. Clearly, it never occurred to them that their clientele might not be entirely comfortable seeing their most private and personal information broadcasted by virtue of the ads that show up on their computer screens.
Some people who found out about this arrangement are unhappy about the situation and have decided to sue Google. A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on May 12, 2023.
Can You Define Hypocrisy?
The fact that Planned Parenthood is sharing personal medical information with Google and other big tech sites is especially ironic given that pro-abortion advocates have been quick to criticize pro-life organizations for failing to protect client data. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion to state legislatures. Suddenly, pro-abortion activists found out that there are hundreds of pro-life clinics available to help pregnant women that do not offer abortion.
Rather than regarding this as good news for troubled women with unwanted pregnancies, pro-abortion activists went on the attack. One prominent criticism has been accusing pregnancy resource clinics of not being required to keep personal health information private consistent with the federal HIPAA statute. (These facilities, even those not covered by HIPAA, keep client information confidential as a matter of policy.)
They have been using this line of argument to scare young girls, telling them that if they go to a pregnancy resource clinic, the facility will not protect their personal health information. They have also falsely claimed that these girls may be criminally liable if they get an abortion in a pro-life state. If this is a big concern, why is Planned Parenthood letting Google crawl its website and gather private health and location information of women who access its website? Especially since court records reveal that Google has been known to turn web search information over to law enforcement bodies when requested to do so.
ProLife Doc: Helping Women and Their Babies
ProLife Doc, Dr. William Lile, is exactly who he says he is: an obstetrician who sees the arrival of all babies into the world as a positive good. When a young pregnant woman walks through his clinic doors, he has two patients: the mom and the baby. His goal is to provide the best care possible for his patients, keeping them both healthy and doing his part to make their futures healthy, positive, productive, and happy.
Organizations like Planned Parenthood often portray themselves as the champions of women, but is that really how they operate? Are they genuinely interested in the best interests of the women who walk through their doors or access their services? Their actions speak loudly, particularly in this case. They may give lip service to “caring” about women, but actively promoting this significant intrusion into the medical privacy rights of those who access their services in order to gain market share suggests otherwise.
To find out more about ProLife Doc and his ministry work to protect the preborn, contact ProLife Doc today.
