Quote:I’ve been reporting on anti-feminist smear campaigns, anti-abortion lies, and right-wing media strategies for years now—so I can see through these posts as the astroturfed slop that they are. The problem is, many young women aren’t journalists or aware of the pink pill pipeline. Many will see the sheer volume of posts about the supposed dangers of birth control and conclude birth control is unsafe, or that IVF is an exploitative, predatory industry.
The goal is to flood the zone with so much anti-birth control content that young women believe we’re encountering this content organically. In reality, what we’re experiencing is a coordinated effort by right-wing actors, steadily manufacturing our consent to ban birth control—and more. The result? More and more women self-reporting worsened experiences with birth control as a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to researchers, or changing their contraceptive method based on what they’re hearing online.

Quote:The content has a "right-wing, religious, largely American element", Evans, who has been accredited for six years, says, and is often framed in terms of "clean living" and "divine femininity".

Posts like this have also made their way onto Lauren's Instagram feed. The 25-year-old, who lives in Manchester, follows a lot of fitness and wellness influencers - and says she gets annoyed by content from some of them "demonising" hormonal contraception and calling it "unnatural".

Quote:In the hours after one new mom's emergency C-section − nine weeks before her due date − and as her baby girl was whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit to be hooked up to life-saving machines, she emailed her boss.

She was supposed to start a new job in five days. She'd negotiated for paid maternity leave in her contract, thinking she'd at least have a couple of months of work under her belt before she'd need to use it. But here she was, lying in a hospital bed with her abdomen cut open and her daughter fighting to stay alive.

She explained everything in the email: How her doctor accidentally broke her water during a routine cervical exam, and the chaos that ensued as she was rushed into an emergency surgery to deliver her baby. Her boss replied quickly. It was a brief message, offering some compassion and ending with the question: "Can you please confirm that you'll be at work on Monday?"

Quote:Our reporting has found that abortion bans generally don’t include exceptions that cover health concerns pregnant women with chronic conditions can face — or if they do, doctors aren’t using them.

Quote:A paper published Friday did not find any evidence for the claim that Tylenol use in pregnancy raises the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.

Quote:The investigation began Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. when Kentucky State Police Post 8 was contacted by a clinic in Campton. Clinic staff reported a woman had disclosed that she aborted her pregnancy at her residence on Flat Mary Road, according to police.

Quote:The European Parliament voted today in support of an EU fund to expand access to abortion for women across the bloc, in a historic ballot that divided lawmakers.

The plan would establish a voluntary, opt-in financial mechanism to help countries provide abortion care to women who can’t access it in their own country and who choose to travel to one with more liberal laws. European citizens presented the plan in an EU petition — through the campaign group “My Voice, My Choice.”

Lawmakers in Strasbourg voted 358 in favor and 202 against the proposal, and 79 MEPs abstained.

Quote:It’s a perfect storm:

• Influencers normalize distrust in medical care.
  
• Politicians push restrictions that make it harder to access birth control.
  
• Courts set up the legal groundwork to strip away the right to contraception altogether.
  

The result?
Millions of young people have already opted out of care due to a large-scale misinformation campaign. So when the legal attacks come, the backlash is smaller due to a culture war that worked first.