You’re invited! Join LifeSite in celebrating 25 years of pro-life and pro-family reporting at our anniversary Gala August 17th in Naples, Florida. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased by clicking here.
(LifeSiteNews) — Facebook has been removing posts about the mailing of dangerous abortion pills as well as subsequently suspending users in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Immediately after the historic decision, which returns to the states the ability to restrict abortion from the moment of conception, reports emerged of censoring abortion pill-related Facebook posts.
An unidentified Facebook user told Vice that soon after the decision was announced Friday morning the post, “I will mail abortion pills to any one of you. Just message me,” was removed immediately.
“I posted it at 11:00 am and was notified within a minute that it was removed. I was not notified until I tried to post later that I was banned for it,” the user said.
A Vice reporter confirmed the effective Facebook policy by posting the phrase “abortion pills can be mailed.” Within seconds, the post was flagged, and when the reporter “disagreed” with the decision, the post was removed, and then reinstated Monday.
As late as Tuesday, Facebook is continuing to flag posts about mailing abortion pills. The author of this post attempted to likewise post “abortion pills can be mailed,” but the post was flagged within moments for violating Facebook’s “Community Standards on Drugs.” The notice states, “We have these standards to encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions.”
“The abortion pill is still available” post elicited the same Facebook notice.
However, the Vice reporter, as well as this author, were able to post “”painkiller pills can be mailed” without issue. An Associated Press reporter had a Facebook post removed that stated, “If you send me your address, I will mail you abortion pills,” but similar posts swapping abortion pills for “gun” and “weed” reportedly remained uncensored, according to NPR.
To shed light on the policy, Facebook directed Fox Business to a tweet from Andy Stone, the communications director for Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
“Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, gift, request or donate pharmaceuticals is not allowed. Content that discusses the affordability and accessibility of prescription medication is allowed,” he wrote. “We’ve discovered some instances of incorrect enforcement and are correcting these.”
Facebook’s policy states that it prohibits “attempts by individuals, manufacturers and retailers to purchase, sell or trade nonmedical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs and marijuana.”
Thirteen states have trigger laws set to ban all or almost all abortions, including medication abortions. Helene Krasnoff, vice president of public policy litigation and law at Planned Parenthood, affirmed to NBC News that “Patients in the ban states will have no access to abortion by any method.”
Alina Salganicoff, director of women’s health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, pointed out that the U.S. is in uncharted territory after Roe’s reversal.
“We haven’t been in a situation where the FDA has approved a drug as safe and effective and you can use it legally in one state without any problem and then in another state it’s banned,” she told NBC News.
Despite insistence that the abortion pill regimen composed of Mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) and Misoprostol is “safe,” Operation Rescue has obtained 128 “Report of RU-486 Event” forms submitted to the State Medical Board of Ohio by abortion facilities that give evidence to the contrary.
The documents detail serious complications from chemical abortions that were reported from January 2021 through April 2022, and include five hospitalizations of women, all of which received blood transfusions after hemorrhaging. Failed abortions accounted for 25 percent of these complications, meaning the baby survived the abortion attempt.
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman commented, “When the abortionists claim abortion pills are safe, remember these 125 women who had to endure unwanted surgical intervention, emergency room visits, blood transfusions, and hospitalization.”
“When that many women in one state suffer complications that require this level of intervention in just 16 months, there is no way one can call abortion pills ‘safe,’” Newman added. “Efforts by the Abortion Cartel to liberalize access to these drugs is dangerous and should be opposed.”