We speak with one of the more than 650 workers calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet to protect the location and browser history of people searching for information on abortion. A petition led by the Alphabet Workers Union also demands the company block advertisements that misleadingly direct users to so-called crisis pregnancy centers, a tactic employed by anti-abortion activists to lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions. “Systems like Google, that know everything about you, can now be used against you,” says Alejandra Beatty, technical program manager at Alphabet healthcare subsidiary Verily and southwest chapter lead with the Alphabet Workers Union. She says organizers are also asking Google to extend its abortion benefits — including relocation support for employees hoping to move to states where abortion isn’t criminalized, and travel and healthcare costs for any out-of-state abortion procedures — to contractors who make up about half of the company’s workforce.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.