Will you sign the petition to stop social media sites from showing abortion disinformation ads to teens?

Sign the petition to demand that social media companies stop showing misleading ads about abortion.

Sign the petition and add your name to demand TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram ban misleading and false ads around abortion.

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

A recent Bloomberg investigation found anti-choice organizations called "crisis pregnancy centers" are increasingly advertising on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat to reach pregnant teens and young people with misinformation about abortion care.¹

When I was a teen growing up in Georgia, I had different views about abortion, families, and peoples' rights to bodily autonomy than I do as a mom to two amazing girls today. In fact, I was so anti-abortion that I volunteered at one of the thousands of "crisis pregnancy centers" in the country, pretending to be real medical service providers that exist to confuse, trick, and convince young people not to seek an abortion. These clinics are everywhere these days, including advertising on social media where they give platforms millions in ad revenue. Even today, I still remember the No. 1 rule from my training as a hotline operator: "Get the girl in the door."

Who were these young teens I was trying to convince? They included the girl who was 10, and wasn't sure if she was pregnant, because she didn't know what a period was. The one who called while holding a bottle of sleeping pills because she couldn't stand the thought of living through pregnancy. The one who said if her mother found out, she'd be forced to marry a stranger in her home country. Their stories are impossible to forget. 

Will you join me in demanding these social media platforms remove misleading anti-abortion ads from their platforms immediately?

Young teens turn to social media and the internet for help and advice in scary situations, such as an unplanned pregnancy. Their trusted platforms shouldn't be able to profit from their suffering. Will you join me in asking TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram to stop distributing dishonest, dangerous, and misleading crisis pregnancy center ads?

Don't be fooled: Crisis pregnancy centers don't actually provide abortion care; they aggressively lie to teens in their most vulnerable moments and actively withhold information about the abortion care pregnant teens may be trying to obtain. Telling teens abortion is dangerous and unsafe, that ultrasounds or other procedures are required when they aren't, and that local clinics don't have appointments available when they do. These are just a few tactics utilized by crisis pregnancy centers. Some experts estimate abortion bans will increase maternal mortality by 33% in women and girls of color, the same population most likely to seek abortion services from these bad actors.²

By profiting from these centers' advertisements, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are spreading misinformation about critical health issues to vulnerable teenagers. Sign the petition to demand that social media companies stop showing misleading ads about abortion. 

Interference from crisis pregnancy centers is designed to force people to delay other options until it's too late, with irreversible, life-changing effects.³ I regret the harm I caused by supporting crisis pregnancy centers—and it's not too late for social media companies to stop their harm by banning these deceitful ads. 

Click here to add your name to this urgent petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

In solidarity,

Amanda w/ ParentsTogether

Sources:

1. "Anti-Abortion Centers Find Pregnant Teens Online, Then Save Their Data," Bloomberg, June 27, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/164422?t=12&akid=328861%2E53570607%2EJxtIj2

2. "Critics Fear Abortion Bans Could Jeopardize Health of Pregnant Women," The Pew Charitable Trusts, June 22, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/164423?t=14&akid=328861%2E53570607%2EJxtIj2

3. "Anti-abortion groups target women with misleading ads," BBC, May 17, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/164425?t=16&akid=328861%2E53570607%2EJxtIj2

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