“As Attorney General, I will enforce the laws as written, which includes protecting pregnancy resource centers from discriminatory consumer notices,” said Attorney General Bailey. “My office takes seriously the need to protect access to life-saving information provided by pregnancy resource centers, and we will push back with every tool at our disposal to defend the ability of these centers to serve Missourians and Americans across the country.”
Last year, Yelp announced that the company would begin issuing consumer notices to the Yelp profiles of crisis pregnancy centers. The notices claim to inform consumers that crisis pregnancy centers “typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.” However, Yelp’s “notices” are often inaccurate.
In their letter, the attorneys general note that applying these warnings to all crisis pregnancy centers but not to Planned Parenthood is discriminatory because Planned Parenthood typically provides limited services other than abortion. The attorneys general write, “The fact that Yelp has apparently applied the Consumer Notice only to crisis pregnancy centers means that Yelp has singled out crisis pregnancy centers for disparate treatment. This sort of discrimination is unacceptable.”
The coalition also contends that re-categorizing the services of crisis pregnancy centers is misguided because these services are in high demand and given free to women. The attorneys general have called on Yelp to stop misrepresenting the services of these crisis pregnancy centers.
In 2019 alone, crisis pregnancy centers provided ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, STD testing, parenting and prenatal education classes, recovery counseling, and other services valued at over $266 million to nearly two million Americans without charging for the services.
Joining Attorney General Bailey in sending the letter are the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The full letter can be read here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/23-2-7-letter-to-yelp.pdf?sfvrsn=91284de4_2