Americans Deserve Better Than Abortion Pill Misinformation

Self-managed abortion through pills is safe, private and effective. Media outlets have a role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation.

9/16/2023
by JENNIFER LINCOLN

Since the fall of Roe, there have been countless attempts to chill speech about abortion, and misinformation has run rampant. Just last month, a prominent newspaper published one of the most egregious examples yet: an op-ed by David Reardon titled “Coercive Abortions Are at the Heart of the FDA Abortion Pill Case.”

Reardon holds a degree from Pacific Western University, an unaccredited correspondence school that closed in 2006 after a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii. Medical professionals and researchers have repeatedly criticized his research for methodological flaws and biases—and reproductive health experts have argued that his conclusions are not supported by scientific evidence.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/16/mail-order-abortion-pills-safe/

16.09.2023

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

refuting anti-choice lies

USA – Anti-Abortion Centers Spent Over $600M in One Year. That’s the Tip of the Iceberg.

Documents reviewed by Rewire News Group suggest the total may have been closer $1 billion. Where is all that "crisis pregnancy center" money going?

AUG 30, 2023
GARNET HENDERSON, Rewire News Group

“Crisis pregnancy centers,” or anti-abortion centers, are known for deceiving and manipulating people seeking information about abortion. They often pose as legitimate abortion clinics, intentionally obscuring their real purpose. They promote dangerous medical misinformation such as abortion pill “reversal.” They also discourage safer sex practices, and because few of them are actual medical facilities, they don’t adhere to medical standards for confidentiality and safety.

For example, a Massachusetts woman sued a CPC in June for failing to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in an emergency surgery and the loss of her fallopian tube. Months earlier, a Kentucky nurse came forward to reveal that a CPC where she had volunteered was failing to properly sterilize its transvaginal ultrasound equipment.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2023/08/30/anti-abortion-centers-spent-over-600m-in-one-year-thats-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/

USA – The oxymoron at the heart of GOP abortion ‘compromise’

Opinion by Mary Ziegler
Tue August 29, 2023

The South Carolina Supreme Court’s recent abortion decision is a reminder of the importance of state constitutional law in the post-Roe era. By upholding a six-week ban virtually identical to one struck down by the same court in January, this ruling means that South Carolina will go from a state that welcomed abortion seekers from across the region to one where the procedure is available for only as little as a week after a person confirms a pregnancy.

But the court’s decision — and the legislative strategy behind the law that the court upheld — is also a perfect reflection of an evolving Republican strategy to push back on abortion: paying lip service to the importance of reproductive liberty with exceptions or rhetorical flourishes while offering no real access at all.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/opinions/abortion-ban-south-carolina-gop-strategy-ziegler/index.html

29.08.2023

Opinion

anti-choice deception

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice hypocrisy

anti-choice legislative strategy

The First Republican Presidential Debate Was Rife With Abortion Misinformation

Alanna Vagianos
Thu, August 24, 2023

The first Republican presidential debate included a lot of fake news about abortion. At least four of the eight candidates standing on the debate stage on Wednesday night repeated the flagrant lie that people are getting abortions “up until birth.”

“I would love for someone to ask Biden and Kamala Harris: Are they for 38 weeks, are they for 39 weeks, are they for 40 weeks? Because that’s what the media needs to be asking,” said Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, referring to President Joe Biden and his vice president.

Continued:
https://news.yahoo.com/first-republican-presidential-debate-rife-033934005.html

Abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care

Louisiana offers up to $5 million in tax credits a year for donations to anti-abortion operations

BY: ANNA CLAIRE VOLLERS
AUGUST 24, 2023

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Mizell and her colleagues borrowed an idea from neighboring Mississippi: a state tax credit program that sends millions each year to nonprofit pregnancy resource centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers. They’re private anti-abortion organizations, often religiously affiliated, that typically offer free pregnancy tests, parenting classes and baby supplies. They are not usually staffed by doctors or nurses, though some offer limited ultrasounds or testing for sexually transmitted infections.

Continued: https://lailluminator.com/2023/08/24/abortion-ban-states-pour-millions-into-pregnancy-centers-with-little-medical-care/

Abortion Is So Popular Republicans Are Inventing Conspiracy Theories to Trick Americans Into Voting Against It

BY CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
AUG 21, 2023

Abortion bans are unpopular. So unpopular that Republican extremists seem to have to invent conspiracy theories to trick Americans into voting for them.

That’s the major takeaway from recent political battles in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In all three states, abortion-related ballot initiatives and elections were framed by right-wing groups as the only thing standing between parents and “trans ideology” in the classroom.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/08/abortion-votes-republican-plan-trick-transphobia-ohio-wisconsin-michigan.html

21.08.2023

Commentary

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice hypocrisy

UK – Anti-abortion directory goes offline following our investigation

NHS and councils remove references to ‘Pregnancy Choices Directory’ but campaigners say they should never have been there

Nandini Archer
18 August 2023

A shadowy database directing pregnant people to anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centres” has been shut down following an openDemocracy investigation.

We revealed earlier this month that the ‘Pregnancy Choices Directory’ website appeared to be a rebranded version of Care Confidential – a charity that wound itself up following a scandal nine years ago. The site included a list of 23 CPCs across Britain. Similar centres have been found to be little more than a front for religious groups trying to talk people out of having abortions, sometimes using misinformation.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/local-councils-nhs-crisis-pregnancy-anti-abortion/

USA – ‘Pro-Life’ Propaganda Wants to Fool You About Abortion Pills

We must be free to make our own abortion decisions—including how and where we access abortion pills.

AUG 15, 2023
ERIN MATSON

As we enter year two of a post-Roe v. Wade world, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of attacks anti-abortion activists have launched since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned abortion rights. From abortion bans, to clinic harassment, to the criminalization of pregnant people and medical providers, it can be hard to keep track of all the ways in which reproductive freedom is under attack.

Particularly now, as we await the outcome of a lawsuit brought by abortion opponents to target mifepristone, one of two drugs used in a medication abortion, anti-abortion activists are using junk science to target medication abortion in a backdoor attempt to circumvent democracy and advance an aggressive nationwide abortion ban.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2023/08/15/pro-life-propaganda-wants-to-fool-you-about-abortion-pills/

15.08.2023

Commentary

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anti-choice deception

anti-choice junk science

anti-choice lies

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anti-choice propaganda

USA – The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

Redefining Contraception as 'Abortion'

JESSICA VALENTI
AUG 14, 2023

For years, feminists have warned that Republicans want to ban birth control. We’ve pointed to legal and cultural trends showing how contraception is in danger, only to be told again and again that we’re overreacting or being hysterical. Remember how well it turned out when our warnings about Roe were ignored?

This disbelief over the danger to contraception isn’t just run-of-the-mill misogyny—though that’s certainly part of it. Some people simply can’t comprehend why lawmakers who claim to be against abortion would prohibit birth control, which prevents unwanted pregnancies. They haven’t caught onto the fact that Republicans’ real end goal is a return to traditional gender roles, and that overturning Roe was simply a means to that end.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-gops-plan-to-ban-birth-control

A ‘Frozen War’ in Europe Threatens Sex, Abortion and LGBTQ Rights

Armenian authorities are officially pro-choice but also desperately want to increase the country's birth rate to create more soldiers to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.

By Sophia Smith Galer
August 14, 2023

YEREVAN, Armenia – There haven’t been any attacks at the Women’s Resource Center’s new address – at least, not yet. Anush Poghosyan, who leads the sexual and reproductive health project for the NGO, told VICE News that physical attacks were frequent before they moved to another location in the capital.

Human rights groups fighting for better sexual and reproductive health rights, including the Women’s Resource Center, have told VICE News they are experiencing increased levels of targeted harassment for the work that they do. Poghosyan said she has been asked “Why are you destroying our families?” at women’s marches, and at one event, after her organisation had translated a book for parents to speak to children about sex education, around 20 people unhappy with the book’s content arrived to throw eggs.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5ydq3/armenia-nagorno-karabakh-abortion-lgbtq-rights