Meta is Censoring Abortion Pill Information

9.15.25

Click to skip ahead: Abortion Censorship on the Rise highlights a new report showing that social media platforms are increasingly blocking content about abortion pills—even when they don’t violate the rules. Attacks on Planned Parenthood has news from Ohio, Oregon, and Maine. In the States has news from Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In Ask Them to Define Birth Control, a request for reporters and media outlets. The Quickie has an under-6-minute video breaking down last week’s top stories. Bans Linked to Increased Crime shares a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. What ‘Pro-Life’ Looks Like relays reporting on pregnant women in ICE detention centers. And In the Nation, quick hits on the latest GOP attacks on abortion pills, and a podcast deep dive into telehealth.

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Abortion Censorship on the Rise

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) just dropped a vital report on social media censorship of abortion information: the group found that despite insisting their policies haven’t changed, platforms like Meta are increasingly taking down abortion-related content—especially posts about abortion pills.

What’s more, when EFF investigated nearly 100 examples of blocked content, they found that almost none actually violated platform policies.

The most common kind of censorship happened when a user shared basic information about abortion medication. One health policy strategist had her Threads post removed, for example, after explaining the shelf life of abortion pills and sharing that they’re available by mail. Meta claimed it was because “[they] don’t allow people to buy, sell, or exchange drugs that require a prescription from a doctor or a pharmacist.”

A Minnesota abortion clinic had its entire Facebook account suspended for the same reason. Tammi Kromenaker from the Red River Women’s Clinic told the Associated Press, “We were not trying to sell drugs; we were just informing our followers about a service, a legal service that we offer.”

Again, Meta claims that their policies haven’t changed—but here at AED, we started to notice a crackdown almost immediately after Trump’s inauguration. Remember our reporting from back in January? We found that Instagram was blocking and blurring content from Aid Access, one of the most important abortion pill providers in the country.

It’s not just Meta, though: EFF found censorship across platforms—from TikTok to LinkedIn.

Right now, access and information is everything. And while conservatives try to ban abortion pills, they know the next best thing is to make it impossible for people to find out how to get them. And that’s all happening at the same time that Republican-led states like Texas are passing legislation to allow people to sue providers, distributors—and even websites and social platforms. As those civil suits become more common, we can expect more platforms will kowtow to pressure.

By the way, that’s exactly why AED has started to make plans about how we can communicate with you offline, if necessary. If censorship worsens—or if speaking plainly about abortion becomes risky—we want to be prepared. I’ll share details soon, but I want you to know we’re thinking ahead.

In the meantime, make sure you’re keeping track of EFF’s “Stop Censoring Abortion” campaign here.

Attacks on Planned Parenthood

I’m very sorry to say that as of today, Ohio Planned Parenthood clinics can no longer serve Medicaid patients. As we reported last week, a judge has allowed Republicans to cut off Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood clinics as the case is battled out in court.

For Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio (PPGOH), the ruling means that the nearly 22,000 Medicaid patients who rely on their clinics for care may not be able to get vital healthcare services. The group says their doors will remain open, however, and that they’ll still offer discounts and payment plans to help ensure patients can still access care. President Erica Wilson-Domer says, “Planned Parenthood has always been committed to providing health care regardless of a patient’s financial circumstances.”

PPGOH tells patients to call 1-800-230-PLAN if they have questions, or for information on how to pay.

Planned Parenthood clinics across the country are facing similar struggles: In Maine, where Planned Parenthood of Northern New England faces a $1 million cut, the group says they’re exploring other funding options to tide them over. Oregon Planned Parenthood clinics say the same: they’re looking for alternate funding while the issue is heard out in court.

In the States

Arizona Republicans are trying to stop doctors from suing over abortion restrictions in the state, claiming that they don’t have legal standing and that the restrictions should remain.

Remember—Arizona voters passed a pro-choice ballot measure in November that protects abortion rights until ‘viability.’ Still, GOP leaders have been in court for months arguing that restrictions—like a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound mandates—remain constitutional.

Today we learn that top Republican lawmakers are asking a judge to toss the legal challenge to those restrictions—arguing that the doctors who brought the suit don’t have standing. “They must show that there’s a real threat of prosecution in order for their lawsuit to succeed,” attorney Justin Smith said.

In fact, Smith—who is representing Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro—claims that because Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has promised not to charge abortion providers, these doctors have nothing to worry about.

It’s an especially hilarious argument when you realize that Petersen is actually running for attorney general; so if he wins, I imagine he’ll be pretty eager to charge abortion providers!

Luckily, the judge didn’t seem convinced by Republicans’ argument, asking, “Are they supposed to violate the law so that they can find out whether it’s enforceable or not?” Lol.

We’ll keep you updated as the case moves forward, but just consider this yet another reminder that Republicans do not care what voters want—they just want to ban abortion. (And fuck democracy if it stands in their way.)

Meanwhile, over in Kentucky—where abortion is banned and a 21-year-old woman faces the threat of prison time over a nebulous ‘abuse of a corpse’ charge—the state reports that there were no abortions in the state between April and June. This seems…unlikely. Reports from organizations like the Guttmacher Institute and the Society of Family Planning’s #WeCount project indicate that abortion has persisted—and even increased—in banned states since Dobbs. That’s in large part thanks to abortion medication, telehealth, and shield laws.

Oh—and Kentucky law requires abortions to be reported to the Office of Vital Statistics within three days of the end of the month in which the abortion occurred. Just another chilling example of the national reproductive police state. (Remember what we reported about Oklahoma last month?)

This is wild: it was just this summer that Tennessee passed the Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act, becoming the only state in the South to pass a law protecting birth control and IVF access. But audio of an anti-abortion strategy session reveals that state legislators and Gov. Bill Lee plan to gut the law or repeal it entirely.

Rachel Wells at TN Repro News—who you should be following if you don’t already—reports that the call took place the morning after the law was signed, and included (among others) Will Brewer of Tennessee Right to Life and Rep. Monty Fritts.

On the call, Brewer says that Gov. Lee’s staff assured him the governor only signed the bill to prevent bad press, and that the governor plans to ‘fix’ the bill next year. Brewer also lays out how Republicans should present a unified front to ensure they can repeal the law without a lot of public debate or media attention.

Wondering why an anti-abortion activist is dictating what Tennessee lawmakers do? Well, Brewer has an awful lot of power in the state: back in 2022 and 2023, Abortion, Every Day reported often on his batshit lobbying efforts to stop state lawmakers from adopting an abortion ban exception for women’s lives. (He insisted that pregnancy complications often just “work themselves out” and that doctors should be forced to “pause and wait this out and see how it goes.”)

Tennessee Right to Life eventually forced Republicans to water down the ‘exception’ to the point of uselessness. Read Wells’ full report for more, and chalk this up as more proof they were never going to stop at abortion.

Quick hits:

• New Jersey Right to Life penned an op-ed opposing New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill, which is actually a terrific reason to support her;

• And Washington Democrats are pressing for the restoration of state funding for a program that supported abortion clinics and patients.

Ask Them to Define Birth Control

Attacks on birth control aren’t just happening in Tennessee: just last week, I reported that the Trump administration was defining the most common kinds of contraception as ‘abortifacients’, and that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett seemed to indicate she believed emergency contraception and IUDs were up to the state.

We’ve watched this sort of thing happen for years: conservative lawmakers, leaders, and activists conflate birth control with abortion without major pushback. Or they claim to support access to contraception without clarifying what, exactly, they think contraception is.

Right now, the stakes couldn’t be higher: we need reporters to start asking Republicans precicely what they mean when they say they support ‘birth control.’

What kinds of birth control are they talking about? Do they think oral contraception, emergency contraception, and all kinds of IUDs are birth control? Are there any forms of contraception that they don’t support? Do they believe there is such a thing as ‘abortifacient birth control’?

It’s vital that reporters, editors, and newsroom leaders understand anti-abortion language games. Remember what happened in the lead-up to November? Donald Trump and JD Vance scored headline after headline declaring the pair didn’t support a national abortion ban, because media outlets didn’t understand what a ‘minimum national standard’ was.

With birth control access on the line, let’s not make the same mistake twice.

The Quickie

Last week was a shit show. If you weren’t paying attention to abortion rights news—or didn’t get a chance to read The Week in Abortion—I did a quick and dirty rundown of everything you need to know. Also: videos like this are easy to share if you know someone who might want to stay updated. (Here’s the TikTok version for those who prefer that platform.)

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A post shared by @jessicavalenti

Bans Linked to Increased Crime

This is interesting: A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports a link between barriers to abortion care and increased rates of property crime. Researchers found that after Texas passed a 2013 law that shuttered half the state’s abortion clinics, there was a rise in crime like burglary, motor vehicle theft, and robbery.

They posit that the rise in “financially motivated crime” could be due to the economic strain abortion restrictions place on families:

“We provide novel evidence that increases in travel distance also result in significant declines in labor force participation, elevated debt-to-income ratios, rising income inequality, higher mortgage delinquency, and more evictions, all of which reflect increased economic hardship.”

All Things Considered has a short segment on the study, if you’d like to learn more.

What ‘Pro-Life’ Looks Like

The Cut’s Andrea González-Ramírez recently spoke to a midwife serving pregnant women in ICE detention centers, and the stories are just devastating. According to Amanda Heffernan, one pregnant woman lost 25 pounds in the span of a month; another had a stillbirth while in custody in Louisiana; and a woman at a detainment center in Tacoma has been incarcerated for half her pregnancy and separated from her two-year-old child. She hasn’t had a single visit with an actual obstetric provider despite being 14 weeks into her pregnancy, and has been denied adequate medical care and healthy food.

It goes without saying that living conditions in ICE detention centers are awful for everyone—but it’s clear they’re distinctly awful and dangerous for pregnant women.

In other ‘pro-life’ news, The Daily Beast reports that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem cruelly misidentified an immigrant woman grieving a recent stillbirth, falsely claiming this woman was charged with homicide.

In May, Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus shared how she spent three days in ICE custody—starved and denied basic medical care—while miscarrying a nonviable fetus at 20 weeks. The mother of six was deported to Guatemala shortly after. That’s when Noem’s DHS launched a smear campaign against the woman, claiming that ICE did provide her with medical care, and that she had faced an active homicide warrant in Guatemala.

The message to immigrant women was clear: come forward with your stories of mistreatment, and we’ll assassinate your character.

To read more about the link between ICE, reproductive rights, and the anti-abortion movement, read Kylie’s column below:

We Need to Talk About ICE and Anti-Abortion Centers

In the Nation

Stateline has a good rundown of the ways that Republicans are going after abortion pills—including citizen lawsuits, restrictions on telehealth, and reclassifying abortion medication as a controlled substance.

Spectrum reports that anti-abortion groups aren’t satisfied with Republicans’ year-long ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood—they want the organization decimated. (In particularly disgusting news, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has a tracker for shuttered PP clinics. I suppose we should thank them: now we have a premade list of places to study for increases in maternal and infant mortality, STI spikes, and teen pregnancy outbreaks.)

NOTUS looks at the latest in the mifepristone lawsuit—pointing out that Texas and Florida joining makes the legal attack more likely to move forward. If you want more info, make sure to read AED’s explainer of the suit here.

Finally, if you’re looking for something to listen to today, NPR’s podcast “1A” digs into the future of telehealth access to abortions:

That’s it for today, folks—we hope everyone had a good weekend despite the hellscape, and that you spent some time talking to friends and family about abortion.