The Next Infodemic: Abortion Misinformation

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an infodemic as the proliferation of false or misleading information that leads to confusion, mistrust in health authorities, and the rejection of public health recommendations. The devastating impacts of an infodemic on public health were felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now on the precipice of another infodemic, this one regarding abortion. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization resulted in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had protected a woman’s right to have an abortion for nearly 50 years. The reversal of Roe v. Wade has given way to an abortion infodemic that is being exacerbated by a confusing and rapidly changing legislative landscape, the proliferation of abortion disinformants on the web, lax efforts by social media companies to abate abortion misinformation, and proposed legislation that threatens to prohibit the distribution of evidence-based abortion information. The abortion infodemic threatens to worsen the detrimental effects of the Roe v. Wade reversal on maternal morbidity and mortality. It also comes with unique barriers to traditional abatement efforts. In this piece, we lay out these challenges and urgently call for a public health research agenda on the abortion infodemic to stimulate the development of evidence-based public health efforts to mitigate the impact of misinformation on the increased maternal morbidity and mortality that is expected to result from abortion restrictions, particularly among marginalized populations.

Abortion needs expressed on Reddit after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in the United States

“…Notably, the anonymity of this forum did not lead to heightened misinformation; comments were overwhelmingly accurate and supportive. This finding is likely due largely to the rules of r/abortion that prohibit misinformative or unsupportive content, drawing a contrast with unmoderated online abortion information that abounds with misinformation 1,17,35,36 5 . Even with this heavy moderation, we observed rampant confusion and even misinformation that went unaddressed.…”

“…On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (US) dismantled the federal right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ( Dobbs ). This landmark decision gave rise to an immediate crisis not only of access to abortion but also of access to abortion information 1 . Women 1 experiencing unplanned pregnancy have long faced social, political, and legal barriers to reliable information about abortion, including state‐mandated counseling containing misinformation, misleading referrals from clinicians, crisis pregnancy centers, and stigma 2–4 .…”

“…Transgender men and gender non‐binary individuals must additionally overcome stigma, discrimination, and knowledge gaps among medical providers 5 . The volatile political and legal environment unleashed by Dobbs has exacerbated these barriers 1 . Without the protections afforded by Roe v. Wade , which legalized abortion in the United States, states have been empowered to enforce abortion policies that are more restrictive than at any point in the past 50 years.…”

Abortion Experiences and Perspectives Amongst Migrants and Refugees: A Systematic Review

“…There were limited data on self-managed abortion in studies beyond unsafe abortion, which may indicate a lack of knowledge of medication abortion or limited access. Misinformation on abortion has been shown to delay abortion care trajectories [ 4 , 53 ] and lead to accessing unsafe abortion care [ 54 ]; Pagoto et al describe an emerging abortion ‘infodemic’ where increasingly present misinformation exacerbates maternal mortality and targets the most vulnerable populations [ 55 ].…”

Trust and Safety on Social Media: Understanding the Impact of Anti-Social Behavior and Misinformation on Content Moderation and Platform Governance

“…Even though measuring the extent of misinformation on social media can be challenging due to its various forms and often ephemeral nature, researchers have extensively documented its impact, spread, and prevalence across social media platforms (e.g., Chen, Xiao & Kumar, 2023;van der Linden, 2022). This phenomenon is particularly evident in discussions of politically polarized topics, such as gun control (Williams, 2022), climate change (Falkenberg et al, 2022), abortion (Pagoto et al, 2023), vaccination (Gruzd et al, 2023), refugees (Zhen et al, 2023), and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic (Gruzd et al, 2021). In its most dangerous form, misinformation turns into disinformation when it is deliberately used to deceive, polarize, or radicalize the population.…”