Pro-life groups react as Google admits it censored pro-life content

Google has officially conceded that it censored political content, including pro-life advocacy, at the behest of former President Joe Biden's administration. The tech giant has claimed it will reinstate previously banned YouTube accounts.

Key Takeaways:

• Google admitted it had censored content it deemed political, including content from pro-life organizations.

• In 2021, Google removed Live Action and Heartbeat International’s abortion pill reversal advertisements.

• Google said the Biden administration "created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation," calling it "unacceptable" for the government to "dictate" the moderation of content.

• Google claimed it will reinstate accounts that it had previously blocked as part of the efforts to suppress content linked to COVID-19 or the 2020 presidential election.

The Backstory:

Google's parent company, Alphabet, has revealed that in 2020, the Biden administration pressured Google and YouTube to remove user-generated content related to COVID-19 and the election, even though the content did not violate the company's policies.

The censorship extended into the pro-life realm. In 2021, Google removed Live Action's and Heartbeat International’s abortion pill reversal (APR) advertisements and blocked Live Action’s "Meet Baby Olivia" video, which documents the development  of a preborn child from fertilization to birth, according to CNA. In 2022, Google reportedly shadow banned an online educational resource by Life Issues Institute.

Since September 2021, U.S. legislators have demanded action against Google’s censorship of ads offering help to women seeking to reverse the effects of the abortion pill through the use of APR. Based on an attack campaign laden with falsehoods and misinformation from a group calling itself the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Google removed the paid Live Action ads that helped women access assistance through Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Reversal hotline.

The Details:

On September 23, 2025, the House Judiciary Committee posted on its website: 

Google also admitted the following to the House Judiciary Committee: 

The Biden Administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube's policies.

The Biden Administration censorship pressure was "unacceptable and wrong."

Public debate should never come at the expense of relying 'authorities.'

The company will never use third-party 'fact-checkers.'

Europe's censorship laws target American companies and threaten American speech, including the removal of ‘lawful content.’

Google also admitted that senior Biden administration officials, including some White House officials, “conducted repeated and sustained outreach” and “pressed” Alphabet “regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate [Alphabet's] policies."

Couple share gratitude that abortion pill ‘reversal’ saved their baby

Elaborating, Google said in its own statements:

As online platforms, including Alphabet, grappled with these decisions, the Administration’s officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation. It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds.

Subsequently, Google said it will reinstate the accounts of certain content creators it had removed as part of efforts to suppress material linked to COVID-19 or the 2020 presidential election.

“YouTube will prove an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect,” the company stated. 

What We're Hearing:

Since Google has admitted to the censorship, pro-life groups are speaking out.

Students for Life of America spokesperson Jordan Butler told CNA it “is no stranger to the challenges of free speech in the digital age.”

“While we’ve been fortunate to avoid censorship on platforms like YouTube and Google, TikTok has proven to be a battleground: banning our content 180 times in just 24 hours,” Butler explained. 

In addition, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) has lambasted the Biden Administration for allegedly targeting pro-life activists. Kelsey Pritchard, the political communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said that companies like Google are inclined to target pro-life advocacy groups.  

“We are not at all surprised by Google’s admissions of censorship,” Pritchard stated. “For years, tech giants have demonstrated a pattern of bias, actively undermining, suppressing, and censoring groups like Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, who share the pro-life message in a highly effective way.”

Pritchard noted, “The Biden administration, too, weaponized federal might to target pro-life Americans and even put peaceful activists in jail. The right to voice one’s convictions is a foundational American value and the pro-life movement will always fight back against censorship.”