Facebook and Instagram have quickly begun removing posts offering abortion pills to women who cannot access them following a Supreme Court decision that removed constitutional protections for the procedure.
Such social media posts were apparently aimed at helping women living in states where pre-existing laws banning abortion suddenly went into effect on Friday.
It was then that the superior court overturned Roe v. Wade, its decision in 1973 which ruled that access to abortion was a constitutional right.
Status updates explaining how women can legally obtain abortion pills by mail order exploded on social platforms. Some even offered to mail prescriptions to women who lived in states that now ban the procedure.
Almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram began deleting some of these posts, just as millions of people in the United States were seeking clarity on abortion access. General mentions of abortion pills, as well as posts mentioning specific versions such as mifepristone and misoprostol, surged Friday morning on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and television broadcasts, according to an analysis by intelligence firm media Zignal Labs.
By Sunday, Zignal had counted more than 250,000 mentions of this type.
Abortion pills, however, can be obtained legally by mail after from an online consultation of prescribers who have received certification and training.
In an email email, a Meta spokesperson told the AP agency the company’s policies that prohibit the sale of certain items, such as weapons, alcohol, drugs and pharmaceutical products. The company did not explain the apparent discrepancies in the application of that policy.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone confirmed in a tweet on Monday that the company did not It will allow people to give away or sell pharmaceuticals on its platform, but will allow content that shares information about how to access pills. Stone acknowledged some problems enforcing that policy on his platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.
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