Yelp flags crisis pregnancy centers to prevent misinformation
Yelp plans to review over 55,000 business pages across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico in the coming months
Yelp is adding consumer notices to listings of centers for crisis pregnancy and faith-based crisis pregnancy to ensure women aren't "misled or confused" about the services those facilities provide.
According to a blog posted Tuesday by the publisher of crowd-sourced reviews, the new consumer notices will better distinguish crisis pregnancy centers from other reproductive healthcare providers.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YELP | YELP INC. | 35.85 | +0.01 | +0.03% |
The notices inform consumers that crisis pregnancy centers typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.
This will help users from potentially being misled or confused, according to Yelp which said it takes transparency, especially around sensitive healthcare decisions, seriously.
"While some people come to Yelp to find businesses that offer pregnancy resources, there are others who turn to Yelp to find reliable information about abortion providers," Yelp said in a statement.
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Yelp consumer notice for Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Faith-based Crisis Pregnancy Centers. (Yelp)
Yelp added: "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."
For the past four years, Yelp has manually evaluated business listings and recategorized those that don't offer abortion services as crisis pregnancy centers.
However, Yelp says access to information about businesses that offer reproductive health services has become more important than ever after Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to an abortion earlier this summer, a right that had been in place for nearly 50 years.
The Yelp application on a smartphone. (Chris Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"We’ve increased our efforts to protect our users and provide them with access to the information they’re looking for, which includes better matching them with reproductive health services that actually offer abortion when they are searching for abortion services and making it less likely they will see crisis pregnancy centers that don’t," the company continued.
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So far this year, Yelp already evaluated nearly 33,500 U.S. business pages and recategorized nearly 470 as crisis pregnancy centers or faith-based crisis pregnancy centers.
As part of its thorough investigation, Yelp says it analyzes the businesses’ website and social media pages, the "About the Business" information contributed to Yelp and Yelp consumer reviews.
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Its plan is to evaluate more than 55,000 business pages across North America over the coming months.
"These updates further demonstrate Yelp’s commitment to maintain the trust and safety of our users, and quality and integrity of the information we provide them," the company said.
However, some pro-life advocates are not on board. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America criticized the decision by Yelp. The group said it is concerned the notices may "scare women away from receiving the support and resources they need."