Ever since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, experts have noticed an increase in online misinformation around abortion, with most of the misleading posts in Spanish.
According to Liz Lebrón, who oversees research at the Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab, these posts can range from people falsely claiming abortion is banned in areas where it remains legal, to outright lies saying the procedure is unsafe and leads to death.
The LADL is a project from Voto Latino launched in 2021 to "combat COVID-19 disinformation and election falsehoods" that target the Latino community. Lebrón told NPR that their organization didn't see widespread misinformation on abortion until the SCOTUS ruling.
"Abortion was not really on our radar," she said. "Then after the leak it started popping up, and it has not slowed down."
Lupe Rodríguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, added that social media platforms often fail to curtail the spread of misinformation when it's in Spanish.
The falsehoods are not always malicious, as laws are constantly changing and sometimes people share rumors without knowing the truth. Despite 60 percent of Latino voters supporting abortion access, these online myths have spread deep into communities offline.
"We're hearing it from community activists on the ground. We're hearing it from allies who we work with in the field," Rodríguez said. "People are confused about what the laws are in their own state or where they can go for information or health care. And that is making it much easier to spread misinformation."
In some cases, the lies are deliberate, as Lebrón said many "are designed to dissuade people from seeking the [abortion] care that they need." In fact, most disinformation can be traced to crisis pregnancy centers.
Planned Parenthood describes CPCs as "clinics or mobile vans that look like real health centers, but they're run by anti-abortion activists who have a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health. [They] don’t provide abortion or offer a full range of health care, and they won’t give you honest facts about sexual health and your pregnancy options — their goal is to spread misinformation and propaganda."
Dr. Melissa Simon, a Latina ob-gyn at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said that despite abortion remaining protected in Illinois, several of her patients express fear of legal repercussions, and often come from already underserved communities.
"When you're trying to care for somebody, this rampant disinformation and preying on the most vulnerable populations that we have — people who already have low resources and fear — this is a real problem," Simon explained. "It's really important that we arm our patients and their loved ones with accurate health information, because that's how it spreads through the network."
