Fears Google ban on abortion ads will restrict access to Melbourne services

There are fears pregnant people in Melbourne will miss the window for an abortion after Google banned ads for the health service.

Online advertisements directing patients to abortion services in Melbourne and across Australia are being blocked by the search engine giant.

Pressure is mounting against Google to reverse the blanket ban on MSI’s medical and surgical termination ads amid claims it is restricting access to the service.

Two clinics currently operate in Victoria under the MSI banner, formerly known as Marie Stopes Australia, located at Melbourne and East Melbourne.

Managing Director Jamal Hakim slammed Google over the latest controversial ban, which previously occurred back in 2019 and was subsequently blamed on a “temporary issue”.

Pro-choice supporters march through the streets of Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

The Herald Sun understands that just two weeks ago Google ran ads framing abortion as “killing innocent children”. They were removed sometime later.

It comes as anger continues to boil over at the radical attack on women’s reproductive rights in the United States earlier this year, when some states voted to outlaw the procedure.

“It’s like Groundhog Day, Google has yet again enforced a blanket ban of abortion campaigns in Australia,” he said.

“We are sick and tired of advertising policies being misinterpreted and restricting the ability of people to find accurate and compassionate information about abortion.”

MSI’s team claimed it received a generic response from Google’s support team on multiple occasions that falsely stated terminations were illegal in Australia.

He conceded that while abortion is in fact legal it was not easily accessible.

Online ads cannot promote medications like RU486 which induces abortions.

“Google’s ban is restricting abortion access,” he said.

“Abortion is not readily available in public hospitals and it is difficult to find abortion service providers due to historical stigma.”

“When Google bans promoting health information about abortion, anti-choice organisations ads often run in place, providing inaccurate information and unsupportive traumatising advice.

“We want to see this resolved as quickly as possible.”

Australian law stated medications used to induce abortions such as RU 486 should not be advertised, though promotion of a health service or procedure was permitted.

A pro-choice rally Melbourne to defend abortion rights. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

MSI Australia Director of Nursing and Head of Risk and Safety Fiona Gerrard said the ban would mean women and pregnant people were presenting too late for termination services.

Patients would face increased costs and in some cases be unable to secure an appointment within the permitted time frame, impact between 700 to 1500 people per week nationwide.

“The week before Christmas is a highly problematic time and will create a bottleneck on health waitlists.”

A Google spokesman told the Herald Sun on Friday afternoon that MSI ads were again showing to its users.

“We have longstanding policies that govern abortion-related ads on Google’s platforms.

Abortion inducing drugs are not allowed to be advertised in Australia,” he said.

“After reviewing the ads in question, we communicated with the advertiser, and their ads are now compliant and showing again.”

It comes as a Melbourne study found access to public abortion services and advice in Australia were limited, despite being legal, sparking calls for “urgent” reform.

The Monash University study analysed abortion service referral data from 17 online health portals used by general practitioners and found almost two-thirds emphasised “public services should be a last resort”.

Almost half did not list public services for surgical abortion, while more than a third did not offer public services for a medical abortion.

People are seen rallying in Melbourne to defend abortion rights. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The study, published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health, found there was “little transparency” as to where — and how — women can access abortion, with regional and remote patients particularly at risk.

Author, Monash University academic and general practitioner registrar Dr Sonia Srinivasan, said this occured “despite few remaining legal restrictions to abortion in Australia” and called on the government to take immediate action.

“Many regions either do not have public abortion services or do not provide information about them, “ she said.

“There was variation in information regarding gestation-specific options, the time-critical nature of referrals, and the importance of women’s own preference when deciding between medical or surgical abortion.

“There is an urgent need for transparency around public abortion service availability, clear guidelines to support referral pathways, and commitment from State and Federal governments to expand the availability of accessible, no-cost abortion in Australia.”