YouTube appears to have cleaned out pro-life videos from the top choices under the search word “abortion.” What’s more, a writer for the left-leaning Slate.com suggested that she was responsible for the change.
April Glaser, identified as a Slate technology reporter, wrote that “before I raised the issue with YouTube … the top search results for ‘abortion’ on the site were almost all anti-abortion” — meaning they were pro-life in perspective.
One of the previously top-ranking titles apparently unranked through Glaser’s efforts is called “LIVE Abortion Video on Display,” which is nothing less than a horrifyingly true video representation of what happens when a pre-born baby’s life is ended through abortion. While the graphic nature of the two-minute video prevented Glaser from challenging the veracity of its deeply disturbing content, she claimed that many other top-ranking pro-life videos she viewed were “frequently misleading” — a charge she made without qualification.
“Only two of the top 15 results struck me as not particularly political,” she wrote, “and none of the top results focused on providing dispassionate, up-to-date medical information.”
Glaser related that after e-mailing YouTube to ask why pro-life videos dominated its search results for “abortion,” over the next two or three days the website’s managers changed the search results to reflect a bias more favorable to a pro-abortion perspective.
In a subsequent Twitter post, Glaser claimed that a “search for ‘abortion’ on YouTube last week and the top results were a horrifying mix of gore and dangerous misinformation.” She went on to insist that “YouTube changed the results after I asked.”
In her Slate article, Glaser wrote that after YouTube followed her directions, “anti-abortion content meant to enrage or provoke viewers was no longer purely dominating the results” — which, translated, means that any video content designed to confront the viewer with the stark and murderous reality of abortion was sanitized from YouTube’s top “abortion” search results, replaced by content that gave all discussion on the killing of babies through abortion a safe and friendly texture.
Why eliminating pro-life content from YouTube’s top “abortion” search results matters so much to Glaser “is that more than 1.8 billion people look for information on YouTube every month,” she wrote, “and that could easily include someone who is considering getting an abortion.” The apparent implication here is that offering such individuals a truly balanced representation of abortion may just convince them that the procedure is wrong for them and their babies.
Among the previously top-ranked content that was de-ranked by YouTube following Glaser’s complaints were videos by pro-life group Live Action. The videos, which appeared to be among those Glaser labeled as “misleading,” were produced by Live Action “to educate viewers on how the different abortion procedures are actually committed, since the abortion industry fails to inform women of the truth,” explained the pro-life group after Glaser’s article appeared.
The group added that the videos in question “are from the ‘Abortion Procedures’ series, which show medical animations of the most common abortion procedures. The animations depict how a pre-born child appears during each stage, and are narrated by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, who committed thousands of abortions before becoming pro-life.”
Live Action defended the accuracy of the videos, saying that “Dr. Levatino has the experience to understand and explain how each type of abortion works.”
The Live Action videos, including some that were de-ranked by YouTube as a result of Glaser’s complaints, can be viewed here.
Image: screenshot from Live Action YouTube video
