Apple’s Siri is suspiciously clueless about reproductive health

It seems the iPhone’s new interactive app Siri isn’t all that helpful when it comes to women’s health. Here are the answers that a commenter at the Abortioneers got to some pretty basic questions.

Q: I am pregnant and do not want to be. Where can I go to get an abortion?

“I’m really sorry about this, but I can’t take any requests right now. Please try again in a little while.”

“Sorry, [my name], I can’t look for places in Tanzania.”

“I don’t see any abortion clinics. Sorry about that.”

Q: I had unprotected sex. Where can I go for emergency contraception?

“Sorry, I couldn’t find any adult retail stores.” This was repeated every time.

Q: I need birth control. Where can I go for birth control?

“I didn’t find any birth control clinics.” [This was repeated every time I asked about birth control, all three times. This is also the answer given when I asked, “What is birth control?”]

As the Abortioneers note, it’s strange because presumably Siri just pulls the information from the interwebs–and there’s no shortage of info about birth control and abortion there.

Granted, it’s mixed in with a whole bunch of deliberately deceptive anti-choice bullshit, so I’m actually not so surprised that another commenter was directed to a crisis pregnancy center when she asked for an abortion clinic. (For instance, when I googled to find the nearest abortion clinic in San Francisco, where I just moved, the top result is First Resort, a CPC that I’ve already been warned about.)

But if Siri can connect you to escort services, help you buy pot, and solve your Viagra mishaps with no problem, you’d think she could be programmed to figure out where to get basic women’s health care. And she should definitely have a better answer when you say “I was raped.”

Any iPhone 4 users want to test out some questions? Let us know the answers in the comments.