Google blocks pro-life group Live Action's ads over 'unproven medical claims'

Google abruptly removed pro-life ads pushing a treatment to reverse the abortion pill, a treatment that the pro-life group Live Action claims has saved the lives of thousands of unborn babies.

"At the request of abortion activists, [Google] has just BANNED all of [Live Action]'s pro-life ads, including those promoting the Abortion Pill Reversal treatment, a resource that has saved 2500 children to date," Live Action President Lila Rose announced on Twitter.

She shared a screenshot from Google Ads that faulted Live Action's ads for using "Restricted drug terms," "Restricted medical content," "Health in personalized advertising" and "Misleading content." She also noted that Google halted Live Action ads promoting a video depicting the development of an unborn baby in the womb. 

Shortly before the bans, The Daily Beast reported that Google changed its policy on such ads due to the news outlet's reporting.

Yet Google has continued to allow ads for the abortion pill.

"It's extreme and unprecedented bias in support of the abortion industry," Rose told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. "They are currently allowing promotions for abortion pills, which force miscarriage, which end pregnancies and kill children, and they refuse to allow an FDA-approved treatment to be promoted to the women who want it."

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A Google spokesperson defended the ban on ads, describing Rose's claims about the abortion pill reversal treatment as "unproven."

"We do not permit ads with unproven medical claims. Medical experts have raised serious concerns about abortion reversal pills," the spokesperson said, citing an advocacy brief from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "Beyond protecting users from medical harm, our policies do not distinguish between promoting pro-choice and pro-life messages."

"Advertisers are allowed to offer either abortion or abortion-alternative services. When doing so, both must prominently disclose which type of service they offer so that users have full transparency and can make their own decisions," the Google spokesperson added.

Even so, the Google spokesperson did admit that it made one mistake in censoring Live Action.

"The Live Action video ad does not violate any of our policies and is allowed to run as an ad. We have corrected the label that temporarily blocked its ability to be promoted."

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Rose noted that the Baby Olivia ad has indeed been allowed to run, but she noted that two of the abortion pill reversal ads that Google has allowed to run have nevertheless been restricted, and they have been running "at about one tenth" of their previous reach. Live Action tried to launch new ads on Tuesday, and Google rejected them "within minutes."

Rose also disagreed with the ACOG advocacy brief, accusing the organization of twisting the facts in favor of abortion. The brief claims that "Medication Abortion ‘Reversal’ Is Not Supported by Science," but it focuses on one 2012 report about the treatment and does not suggest that the abortion pill reversal will damage women.

Medication abortion involves two medications: mifeprostone, which blocks the natural hormone progesterone, and misoprostol, which effectively causes a miscarriage. The reversal treatment involves giving a woman more progesterone, reversing the effect of the first pill. A woman can only reverse a medication abortion before she takes the second pill.

Rose told Fox News the FDA has approved a wide variety of uses for progesterone drugs (although some remain contested), including the exact kind of hormonal deficiency that mifeprostone induces.

Progesterone "has been on the market for decades. Doctors all around the country have been using it to reverse that first deadly drug," Rose said. "It's dishonest and cynical for any medical professional to suggest that progesterone is not FDA approved or that mifepristone can't be counteracted with progesterone when mifeprestone is intended to fight progesterone."

The ads that Google blocked had previously been approved by the search company, had been running for four months, spending over $170,000, and had directed hundreds of mothers to the abortion pill reversal hotline, the Live Action president shared on Twitter. 

"We got over a dozen calls a day from women who were seeking progesterone at the height of the ads a couple days ago," Rose told Fox News. She said doctors working with the abortion pill reversal group have successfully administered progesterone to 2,500 women who had taken mifeprostone, allowing the mothers to deliver healthy babies in the wake of an abortion reversal.

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Rose said the "pro-abortion forces … don't want women to know that it's possible to reverse the process. They don't want to admit that abortion regret exists. This attack on this FDA approved drug is absurd, it's politically motivated, it's cynical." She accused ACOG of twisting the facts for political reasons. "They're weaponizing fake claims about science in order to shut down this lifesaving treatment."

"Abortion regret is common and women are eager to know that there are options," the pro-life advocate insisted.