Why Google and Facebook Keep Shutting Down Abortion Pill, Sex Product Ads

Women’s healthcare startup Hey Jane spent more than a year running ads on Google promoting its services providing abortion pills by mail. Then, in late March, Google shut off the three-year-old startup’s ad campaigns with no warning.

In the subsequent ten days, Hey Jane lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue,  while its staffers struggled to find out why Google had suddenly blocked its ads, according to CEO Kiki Freedman. On April 8, after The Information asked Google about the episode, the tech giant reversed its decision. Later that day, Hey Jane ads again started running on Google Search.

The episode is a reminder of how easily the digital ad machines that help small businesses find customers can turn against those same firms, choking off revenue and threatening their existence. Leaders of women’s health-focused companies such as Hey Jane say the digital advertising landscape is particularly fraught for them because their products are widely used but taboo to some people. That means they can run afoul of ad policies that sometimes fail to keep pace with legal and societal changes. Often, automated systems first apply those rules without human intervention, with costly consequences for the firms involved.