Your Health Your Rights Does What Your iPhone Won't
Page Media
Siri won't tell you where you can get an abortion, but we will.
The newest iPhone features Siri – which Apple bills as "the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking." Or not, depending on what you're asking for. Need movie tickets, takeout food, or even Viagra, Siri can help. But should you need say, basic reproductive health care like emergency contraception or an abortion, Siri is clueless.
According to numerous news sources, when women asked to find an abortion clinic Siri either draws a blank, or worse refers women to "crisis pregnancy centers," which give women incomplete and sometimes misleading information about abortion. Further, if you'd like to avoid getting pregnant, Siri isn't much use either. When asked where one can find birth control or emergency contraception Siri comes up blank.
From our office in downtown San Francisco, we said "Siri, I need an abortion." The response was, "I'm sorry, I couldn't find any abortion clinics," even though we are in the middle of a major city, with Planned Parenthood health centers and hospitals nearby. When we asked about emergency contraception, we also got nothing. Siri-ously?!
Fortunately for women in California, the Your Health Your Rights web guide can help you find the reproductive health care you need. (It's produced by the ACLU of Northern California and ACCESS Women's Health Justice.) If you need to find where to go for an abortion, emergency contraception or birth control, you'll find answers. Need to know where you can get a confidential pregnancy test or testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections? Yep, that's covered too. Having a baby but having trouble paying for prenatal care? Check.
Sure, you could do a Google search and hope for the best. Or you could go right to YourHealthYourRights.org and have all the information in one place about your rights, where to go for health care services in California, who to call with questions, and how to get help paying for care if you don't have insurance or can't afford it. In California, you have rights and you have resources to get the reproductive health care you need.
Although it isn't clear that Apple is intentionally trying to promote an anti-reproductive justice agenda, it is distressing that Siri can point you to Viagra, but not the Pill, or help you find an escort service, but not an abortion clinic. We're confident that the developers at Apple want to provide iPhone users with accurate information.
