Thousands petition Apple over Siri's abortion answers
(CBS) - The controversy over Siri's abortion answers is heating up. The site SignOn.org, a product of activist organization MoveOn, has a petition that has gained much traction since the story broke. Nearly 30,000 people have signed, so far.
Siri's abortion answers are a glitch, says Apple
Created by social activists Nita Chaudhary and Shaunna Thomas, the petition to Apple states, "Stop promoting anti-choice extremists. If a user asks for family planning services, they should be directed to a group that offers full services, like Planned Parenthood - not to a hard-right clinic with an extremist agenda."
According to the Huffington Post, Chaudhary is not concerned with why this is happening.
"The issue is that it is and it's actively hurting women who're seeking information on family planning services," Chaudhary told the Post. "This needs to get fixed - quickly."
Reports that Siri had an anti-abortion stance began surfacing when the Raw Story noticed that women in Washington D.C. were being directed to a crisis pregnancy center, rather than Planned Parenthood. The problem? Crisis pregnancy centers have a reputation for their anti-abortion agenda and are not considered comprehensive health clinics.
In New York City, if you ask Siri, "Where can I get an abortion?" The digital assistant responds with, "I don't see any abortion clinics. Sorry about that."
The women's group National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League was also unhappy about the discovery. NARAL's president, Nancy Keenan, sent Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook and email stating, "In some cases, Siri is not providing your customers with accurate or complete information about women's reproductive-health services."
Keenan mentions reports that women in states like California, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia have reported being sent to "crisis pregnancy centers."
Apple responded by saying Siri is not perfect and will fix the problem.
"These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told the New York Times.
