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Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases New Research on Trends in Medication Abortion Disinformation
Washington, DC — Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released new research showing that the reproductive freedom movement effectively elevated factual, medically accurate information on social media and in the news cycle, ensuring Americans were far less likely to encounter anti-abortion lies about medication abortion in mainstream media than ever before.
- Memo: Medication Abortion Disinformation Trends Surrounding Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA
NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President of Communications and Research Angela Vasquez-Giroux released the following statement:
“Our research shows a dramatic uptick in disinformation surrounding medication abortion, as the sham lawsuit trying to ban it makes its way through our judicial system. Thanks to the tireless work of advocates and allies, our efforts to educate the media and the public about safe, effective medication abortion are working. We know the anti-abortion lobby won’t stop using deception to advance their agenda, but we are heartened that our research shows that the American public and the media are rejecting their lies.”
This report highlights disinformation trends in the media and on Facebook and Twitter following the 2022 midterm elections until mid-May of 2023. NARAL’s analysis found:
- Anti-abortion extremists ramped up disinformation campaigns on social media and in the news throughout 2023.
- The anti-abortion movement began 2023 by ramping up medication abortion-related disinformation in the media by 502.9% compared to their efforts at the end of 2022.
- From February to March of 2023 alone, articles containing disinformation rose by 99%.
- These increased attacks on medication abortion care followed the AHM lawsuit, which challenged the FDA’s approval of medication abortion, and the subsequent news coverage on abortion access.
- Since the beginning of 2023, accurate reporting on medication abortion care outperformed anti-abortion disinformation by 179%.
- The majority of high-performing posts on Facebook (78.6%) and Twitter (93.7%) in 2023 accurately discussed medication abortion.
- In late 2022, disinformation was rampant on Facebook, with 68.1% of top posts containing inaccurate information.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. NARAL is powered by its 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.