A bill introduced in the North Carolina House of Representatives last year said anyone getting an abortion should be “held accountable” for murder. The bill received little support and did not advance. But social media posts misleadingly claimed the state is considering a proposal that would “make it legal to murder a pregnant woman” trying to get an abortion.
The Food and Drug Administration and numerous peer-reviewed academic studies have concluded that medication abortions are “safe and effective” and that serious adverse events are relatively rare. But South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem misleadingly called medication abortions “very dangerous medical procedures.”
There are life-threatening complications in which abortion is medically necessary, and social media posts claiming otherwise are incorrect, physicians said. “In some situations, abortion is the only medical intervention that can preserve a patient’s health,” the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told us.
Taking unregulated herbal cocktails to cause an abortion can be dangerous, obstetricians say. But recipes — some containing potentially toxic ingredients — for self-induced “miscarriages” have been circulating online since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Despite persistent claims to the contrary, none of the three authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines contains fetal tissue. We take a look at the facts in light of Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, allowing laws banning abortion in several states, including Kentucky, to take effect. But social media posts falsely claim Kentucky is considering a law requiring all women of childbearing age to undergo monthly pregnancy testing. The claim stemmed from a lawmaker’s satirical amendment.
Proposed legislation in Tennessee and Missouri would not regulate Plan B contraception pills, and experts say state “trigger laws” that would take effect if Roe v. Wade were overturned will not ban methods of birth control. But social media posts falsely claim that both states have banned Plan B – the morning-after pill.
In a footnote of a draft opinion on abortion access, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito quoted from a 2008 government report on the demand for adoption in the U.S., which used the phrase, “domestic supply of infants.” Posts on social media critical of the opinion have misleadingly suggested that Alito himself came up with the phrase.
A leaked draft opinion suggests that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Shortly after the document was published, a meme began circulating that falsely claims President Joe Biden has “[s]topped abortion.”
A leaked draft opinion indicated that the Supreme Court is ready to abolish the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. The draft isn’t final, but what happens if the court decides that Roe “must be overruled” and the issue of abortion returned “to the people’s elected representatives,” as the draft said?