Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird today led a 16-state coalition in a letter demanding YouTube remove dangerous and misleading information labels attached to videos discussing chemical abortion pills. The label contains inaccurate information that jeopardizes women’s health.
An upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case, Food & Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, challenges FDA’s decision to remove the requirement for medical supervision before, during, and after taking an abortion pill. That change, doctors argue, endangers women’s health by ignoring potential serious complications. Alliance Defending Freedom released a video underscoring the dangers of unsupervised at-home use of the abortion pills, featuring a woman’s painful experience using abortion pills alone. In response, YouTube attached a label to the video that made misleading claims about the procedure.
YouTube’s misinformation label states that abortion pill procedures are “done by a licensed healthcare professional.” The label is inaccurate given that under current FDA protocols, women take abortion pills at home without any medical supervision. The FDA reports that approximately one in 25 women experience severe complications requiring emergency room medical care.
“Women deserve to know the truth about the dangers of chemical abortion pills,” said Attorney General Bird. “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. YouTube must end its blatant misinformation campaign that puts women at risk and quit targeting pro-life messages.”
The States also make the case that YouTube’s bias against pro-life and pro-woman messages violates the First Amendment and potentially deceives consumers.
Iowa led the letter and was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full letter here.
