Click to Read:

An Abortion Puzzlement by John Grondelski
(reprinted with permission from the New Oxford Review)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Below:

NEWSworthy: YouTube Spreads Abortion Pill Misinformation by Stephen Kokx

Tech giant YouTube has quietly edited a context note, which included abortion industry talking points, from a pro-life video warning about the dangers of chemical abortions.

In December 2021, the Food and Drug Administration eliminated restrictions on mifepristone, a dangerous chemical abortion drug that, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, resulted in a 500% increase in emergency room visits for women from 2002 through 2015. The drug is estimated to account for almost half of all abortions in the United States. Pro-abortion forces have intensified promotion of its use after Roe v. Wade was reversed in 2022.

In November 2022, pro-life law firm Alliance Defending Freedom sued the FDA on behalf of anti-abortion activists. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine last month. Pro-lifers are hopeful the court will not only rule against the loosened restrictions but even review the FDA’s approval of the drug in 2000 given the harm it has had on women’s health.

Prior to the Biden administration’s decision, mifepristone was required to be picked up in person and used in the presence of a medical professional. Now, it can now be mailed to women for private use so long as they have a prescription.

Pro-lifers point out that while abortion pills are dangerous in themselves, using them alone and without medical supervision can be especially harmful. To that end, ADF released a video in February titled “Abortion Drugs are High-Risk. We must hold the FDA Accountable for Removing Commonsense Safeguards.” The minute-long clip featured a woman who said she suffered “intense pain and prolonged bleeding” after taking abortion pills on her own.

YouTube added a “context” note to the video in response, claiming that abortion, whether medicinal or surgical, is “done by a licensed healthcare professional.”

Attorneys generals from 16 states sent a letter to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan arguing that the note was not only misleading but also false, as chemical abortions are not done “by a health professional.”

The letter also threatened to strip YouTube of its Section 230 immunity under the Communications Decency Act, a federal statute that exempts it from liability for what users upload to the site.

“For YouTube to attach deceptive labels to videos of women sharing their testimonies after suffering from at-home abortion drugs is a disservice to women everywhere,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird told the Daily Signal. “YouTube must end its blatant misinformation campaign that puts women at risk and quit targeting pro-life messages.”

YouTube quickly changed the note no longer to include the reference to health professionals. “An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy,” it currently reads. “It can be done two different ways: Medication abortion, which uses medicines to end the pregnancy. It is sometimes called a ‘medical abortion’ or ‘abortion with pills.’ Procedural abortion, a procedure to remove the pregnancy from the uterus. It is sometimes called a ‘surgical abortion.’”

Plaintiffs in the case include Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, American College of Pediatricians, and Christian Medical & Dental Associations. They argue that their members “are witnessing firsthand the harms inflicted by the FDA’s recklessness and are regularly called upon to treat emergencies caused by abortion-drug complications.”