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RCRC Applauds Amazon.com for Modifying Anti-Choice Bias On Its Site
March 20, 2006

Statement of Reverend Carlton W. Veazey, President and CEO, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC)

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice applauds Amazon.com for its quick response in removing an instance of anti-choice bias from its site after a complaint by RCRC Clergy for Choice members.

Amazon’s sensitivity and willingness to act are rare. Anti-choice bias is so deeply ingrained in American culture that even fair-minded people fail to notice it. Decades of attacks on women’s reproductive rights have desensitized most Americans to the propaganda being used to roll back these rights.

Amazon’s error—asking visitors if they meant “adoption” when they typed in the word “abortion” and then suggesting several anti-choice books—probably was not malicious, but it may well have been devastating to women seeking information with which to make a decision about an unwanted pregnancy. Whether intentional or accidental, it is wrong to cause mental anguish to a woman struggling with such a decision.

The language used to denigrate reproductive rights has been carefully crafted by the “Religious” Right to mislead and inflame the public. The best antidote to this deceptive and corrupt effort is an alert public willing to speak up when necessary. Our thanks for acting to curtail this instance of bias go to Clergy for Choice members Reverend Jeff Briere, a Unitarian Universalist minister in Chattanooga, Reverend Rebecca Turner, executive director of the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and Reverend James Lewis, a retired Episcopalian minister in Charleston, West Virginia.