How to Spot Abortion-Related Misinformation

Between pregnancy “crisis centers” and “abortion pill testing,” there's a lot of questionable info out there. Here's how to tell what's evidence-based and what's not.

Lux Alptraum
Oct 24, 2023

In mid-September, the New York Times Opinion section ran a piece with a shocking headline. “In Poland, Testing Women for Abortion Drugs Is a Reality. It Could Happen Here,” the paper breathlessly declared.

As I read the piece, I felt a shudder of panic go down my spine. For years, abortion advocates have been confidently assuring people that abortion pills cannot be detected in the system when they’re taken by mouth. An effective test for abortion pills could have terrifying ramifications—at a bare minimum, it could discourage people from seeking follow-up care after a self-managed abortion.

And yet, at the same, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right here. What was the scientific justification for developing such a test?

Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-spot-abortion-misinformation/


USA – ‘Could She or I Go to Jail for This?’ Abortion Bans Result in Substandard Care That Threatens Patients’ Lives

JUNE 8, 2023
by Megan Burbank

In April, northern Idaho’s Valor Health Hospital announced it would be closing its labor and delivery unit. It was the second Idaho hospital in as many months to stop delivering babies: Bonner Health had made headlines when it did the same thing in April, citing the state’s political situation as a contributing factor. Idaho is home to some of the country’s most draconian abortion laws, and the state’s long-running hostility toward abortion means patients from Idaho often relied on Eastern Washington abortion providers since long before Roe’s reversal.

But shutting down labor and delivery units is new. And a new report, “Care Post-Roe: Documenting cases of poor-quality care since the Dobbs decision,” from the reproductive policy research organization Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), shows why: As abortion laws keep physicians from providing standard pregnancy care as well as abortion, it’s leading to worse outcomes for pregnant people and their babies — and pushing clinicians to reconsider whether it’s even worth practicing in states where they effectively can no longer do their jobs.

Continued: https://southseattleemerald.com/2023/06/08/opinion-could-she-or-i-go-to-jail-for-this-abortion-bans-result-in-substandard-care-that-threatens-patients-lives/


USA – ‘Love Is Blind,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and more: How abortion’s portrayal on TV is changing

A researcher found more plotlines around and more mentions of abortion on TV this year — though wealthy White characters are still overrepresented.

Jennifer Gerson
December 15, 2022

For the past five years, researcher Steph Herold has studied portrayals of abortion in television and film as part of the Abortion Onscreen initiative.

The latest study by Herold, a research analyst at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California-San Francisco’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health spans this year. It found 60 abortion plotlines or mentions from 52 distinct television shows, well outnumbering the 47 abortion plotlines in 42 shows seen in 2021.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2022/12/abortion-portrayal-television-movies-after-dobbs/


Abortion pill reversal is a myth driven by the anti-abortion agenda

Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, one of the lies that continues to spread is disinformation about abortion reversals

by Xenia Ellenbogen
August 11th, 2022

Misinformation about reproductive health is always circulating. But since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson struck down Roe v. Wade in June, disinformation about abortions is spreading like wildfire—and it can have some dangerous results. One of the lies spreading is abortion pill “reversal”—a myth proselytized and upheld by crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) or fake clinics with an anti-abortion agenda. Despite tenuous experimental research, CPCs purport that if people begin to have regrets about going through with an abortion after already starting the process, the person can halt the abortion after taking the first medication.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2022/08/11/abortion-pill-reversal-myth-anti-abortion-agenda/


USA – Medication Abortion Is the Future, so Why Don’t TV Shows Depict It More?

"This year, what's happening politically right now is just so divorced from the representations of abortion that we're seeing on TV."

Dec 14, 2021
Caroline Reilly, Rewire News

Abortion is normal and common, but you wouldn’t know it from watching television. Just ask Steph Herold, a research analyst with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) who studies onscreen abortion narratives and how they impact viewers’ understanding of abortion care.

The results are mixed. In 2021, Herold and her colleagues at ANSIRH’s Abortion Onscreen project found 47 abortion plotlines on 42 television shows, from The Handmaid’s Tale to This Is Us.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/12/14/medication-abortion-is-the-future-so-why-dont-tv-shows-depict-it-more/


From “Plan B” to “Grandma,” 5 abortion road trip movies that reflect our frustrating reality

From buddy comedies to dramas, movies focused on abortion barriers tell a story that shouldn’t need to be told

By KYLIE CHEUNG
PUBLISHED JUNE 6, 2021

Last week, Hulu's "Plan B" became the latest movie to focus on the complex, stigmatizing and sexist barriers to reproductive care, which are especially difficult for young people. In Natalie Morales' directorial debut, two South Dakota high school students, Sunny (Kuhoo Verma) and Lupe (Victoria Morales) have 24 hours to find emergency contraception after Sunny's first sexual encounter. The problem is, the only pharmacist in their small hometown denies Sunny access to the pill citing the "conscience clause."

To be clear, emergency contraception is entirely different from abortion care, preventing rather than ending a pregnancy that's already underway. But other than that important distinction, "Plan B" continues a growing trend of movies in which seeking abortion or other reproductive care through tremendous cost, geographical and legislative barriers isn't just a subplot — it's the main storyline.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/06/06/abortion-road-trip-movies-plan-b-unpregnant-grandma/


Are we making progress in depicting abortion on screen?

Analysis of the past 60 years of how abortion has been portrayed in film and TV reveals how many negative tropes still endure.

BY KATHARINE SWINDELLS
13 MAY 2021

Although you might not naturally see similarities between BAFTA TV nominees I May Destroy You, Bridgerton, and the latest documentary from filmmaker Deeyah Khan, they all share a common thread in their depiction and discussion of abortion.

A study of the past 60 years of film and television shows how far we have come in stories that portray abortion, but also highlights the endurance of negative tropes that perpetuate misrepresentation and stigma.

Continued: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2021/05/are-we-making-progress-depicting-abortion-screen


USA – Covid Put Remote Abortion to the Test. Supporters Say It Passed.

Medication abortion was briefly available online in some states, but a court ruling blocked it. Advocates want it back.

BY REBECCA GRANT
04.05.2021

LAST SUMMER, Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey received the news they had hoped for, but hadn’t expected to get so soon. Their new telemedicine clinic would be able to offer remote medication abortion services, at least for the time being.

Medication abortion — which most commonly involves taking two medications, 24 to 48 hours apart, during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has been available in the U.S. since 2000. But, despite a growing chorus of advocates and experts who say remote access is just as safe as in-clinic care, the Food and Drug Administration requires providers to dispense mifepristone, the first of the two medications, inside the walls of a clinic, hospital, or medical office, citing the risk of complications. Most abortion providers interpreted this language to mean they could not mail mifepristone to patients’ homes, rendering fully remote abortion care impossible.

Continued: https://undark.org/2021/04/05/digital-abortion-access/


Why I’m becoming an abortion provider now

Chris Ahlbach
October 24, 2020

With the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade currently faces the biggest threat in our lifetime. Although Roe was insufficient in securing access to abortion for many people in the US, its repeal would catapult us into an era where one of the safest and most common medical procedures known becomes illegal in many states. For decades, abortion has occupied a politicized space in American medicine, leading to this impending crisis of millions of people losing access to this health service. No matter what happens with Roe, I choose to advocate to expand access to health care, including abortion, and call on my fellow health care providers to join me in this moral work.

Continued: https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/why-im-becoming-an-abortion-provider-now/


How The “Abortion Road Trip” Movie Became An Instant Classic

KAYLA KUMARI UPADHYAYA
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Conversations about abortion have been playing out on the big screen since decades before Roe V. Wade legalized them in the United States in 1973. One of the first known movies that deals with the topic is a 1916 film called Where Are My Children? Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the early year, it was a negative portrayal of abortion.

In recent years, however, depictions of abortion in movies have become more common and somewhat more realistic. In 2020 alone, there have been nine films that depict a character obtaining an abortion, double the number of 2019, according to Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH)’s Abortion Onscreen Database. Only two of these movies showed an adverse physical outcome as a result of an abortion, and none portray an adverse psychological outcome. Two are comedies.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015436/abortion-road-trip-movie-trend