W.Omen’s health is at risk worldwide as Google’s algorithm blocks critical online information about abortions, activists warned.
Women on Web, the global abortion company, saw a radical drop in traffic to its website after Google changed the way its algorithm worked.
The abortion provider, which connects women with doctors who can distribute abortion pills in countries where abortion is illegal, saw 80 percent of its website visitors disappear overnight when Google changed the way its search tool worked in May 2020.
Women on Web told The Independent that the organization has not recovered most of its visitors since then; last December, it had only 30 percent of the requests to the site that it had in early 2020.
Venny Ala-Siurua, Managing Director of Women on Web, said, “We had 50,000 visitors a day and then last May we had 10,000 visitors a day.
“It is disheartening because we know that the people who turn to us are already personally discriminated against in services or blocked from access to services altogether. These inequalities are perpetuated online. People face the same obstacles on the Internet. “
Abortions are banned in a significant number of countries around the world, meaning women are routinely forced to risk their lives by resorting to dangerous abortions.
In countries with the strictest laws, abortion is illegal if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or in the case of a fatal fetal abnormality, with life imprisonment for those who perform abortions.
Google regularly updates its algorithm to provide more relevant content to users who enter search queries.
However, Ms. Ala-Siurua said, “This May update targeted misinformation about the health caused by the pandemic, but this update also ruled that the content we provided was no longer targeting the searches of people seeking abortions required.
“It’s a small group of people who decide what goes into the algorithm. In our opinion, this group of people is not representative of women using Women in Web. The people who update the algorithm are very detached from the people who are affected by the updates. “
Ms. Ala-Siurua expressed concern that the group’s abortion services were simultaneously being impacted while demand for abortions via online services increased during the pandemic.
“All of this happened when services like ours were most needed,” she added. “It is so important during the pandemic that people have access to services that do not require contact or physical travel. The pandemic pressure on health systems has also resulted in sexual and reproductive health not being a priority. “
She noted an increase in women accessing their abortion services after the Covid crisis, followed by a sharp decline following the change in Google’s algorithm as the group was forced to “think continuously” about how the technology chain affects theirs Services will impact.
Tech gatekeepers are making the internet less open
Venny Ala-Siurua, CEO of Women on Web
Women on Web receives thousands of emails and requests for help every month, and its multilingual support service provides confidential help for people with unwanted pregnancies. The service has given over 100,000 people access to abortions by mail over the past 15 years, as well as answering over a million emails in 25 different languages, Ms. Ala-Siurua said.
“When our website was downgraded, the services that replaced us at the top of Google search were large established, formal government services,” added Ms. Ala-Siurua. “We’ve all been accessing more information online since the pandemic, but tech gatekeepers are making the internet less open.”
In countries around the world with very restrictive abortion laws, Women on Web is often the only safe and affordable way to access abortion, but Google directs women to government websites that do not show them how to find abortion services.
Medical abortion involves taking two tablets, although health experts say the pills are less harmful than paracetamol.
A woman living in Croatia who used the services of Women on Web said: “I am so happy and relieved that everything went so quickly and safely and I would like to tell other women who are in my situation that they are shouldn’t worry. Doing this at home without people judging like in the hospital is such a relief … and peaceful for women.
“It’s the best way to do something like this traumatic,” she added.
Another woman living in Northern Ireland said: “At the age of 43 with two young children aged seven and 11 living on benefits, having a child at that time would have placed extreme stress and pressure on me and my existing family .
“The opportunity to use this service has therefore had a far-reaching positive effect on everyone involved and I am very grateful that this service is available for someone like me.”
The World Health Organization previously estimated that every eight minutes a woman in a developing country dies from the effects of a secret abortion. An estimated 25 million unsafe abortions occur worldwide each year, the vast majority in developing countries, and abortions are one of the largest causes of maternal mortality worldwide.
Women on Waves, a non-profit organization of doctors and activists, is the sister organization of Women on Web. Dr. Rebecca Gompert’s company has flown abortion pill-filled drones and distributed safe medical abortions and reproductive health services by boat in international waters.
A Google spokesperson told The Independent, “Core updates are designed to increase the overall relevance of our search results.
“We learned that websites that demonstrate authority on a topic are less likely to post false or misleading information. So if we can build our systems to identify signals of these characteristics, we can continue to provide reliable information.
“The design of these systems is our greatest safeguard against substandard content, including potential misinformation, and is a job we have been investing in for many years.”
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/womens-health-around-world-put-at-risk-due-to-googles-algorithm-blocking-abortion-services/
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