Now, if a person comes across a crisis pregnancy center when browsing Yelp’s business pages, they will see a notice that prominently identifies it as such and notes it may “provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite,” according to a blog post from Noorie Malik, the company’s VP of user operations.
“It’s well-reported that crisis pregnancy centers do not offer abortion services, and it’s been shown that many provide misleading information in an attempt to steer people seeking abortion care to other options,” wrote Malik. “With this new consumer notice we’re aiming to further protect consumers from the potential of being misled or confused.”
Yelp reports that nearly 470 businesses have been re-categorized so far in 2022, with around 33,500 US pages evaluated. The company plans on going through over 55,000 pages in the coming months across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Google has yet to take action on the matter, though it has taken other steps. In July, the company said it would begin deleting user location history for visits to abortion clinics and fertility clinics, among other destinations. Google also said it would add an option for Fitbit users to bulk delete their menstruation data. (The Google-owned fitness tracker previously gave users the option to delete period-tracking data on a record-by-record basis.)
