I recently came across
this article on a friend's facebook and screamed in horror. All of you out there that have used your new iPhone 4s "Siri" feature to search for the nearest abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood center, or even just some gosh darn birth control, know about the iPhone's narrow-minded views (Can a cell phone have "views"??) on reproductive rights and safety. Apparently, Siri, the new iPhone feature that answers when you talk to it, can tell you where to find good food, where to change your oil,
where to hide the body of that person you just capped, where to get good drugs, and where you can buy sex. It will not, however, tell you where the nearest abortion clinic is, or where to obtain emergency contraception. Even technology is discriminating against me.
To those of us who remain in the dark with our lowly, stone-age, un-smart phones, this news was twice as frightening: iPhones can TALK to you?? AND they are pro-life?!?!?
The scariest part of all this is that Siri not only ignores all abortion clinics in the area it searches, it has actually sent users instead to the nearest "crisis pregnancy centers". If you don't know about these phony, far-right Christian, anti-abortion-centers-posing-as-real-health-clinics,
read about how prey on and trick women into buying their propaganda.
Before you go blaming Apple and cursing Steve Job's grave, keep in mind that it was likely not Apple that programmed Siri to lie to you about your reproductive choices, but the company that developed the artificial intelligence for them. For now, people are working to
bring it to Apples attention.
Just like US health insurance, Siri has no problem helping it's clients find all the Viagra they need, but when it comes to women's health, you're on your own.
