Doctors and advocates tackle a spike of abortion misinformation – in Spanish

In recent months, doctors and reproductive rights advocates say they've seen a surge in abortion-related misinformation repeated on social media and in conversations among the Latino communities they serve. Some worry that this onslaught of false messages may discourage pregnant Latinas from seeking medical care when they need it — even in places where abortion remains legal. (Photo via Pixabay)

Just after news leaked in May that the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, Liz Lebrón and her colleagues noticed something unusual: a spike in false and misleading information on abortion being shared in Spanish on social media.

“Abortion was not really on our radar,” says Lebrón, who oversees research for the Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab. “Then after the leak it started popping up, and it has not slowed down.”

The lab, a project from the national voter registration organization Voto Latino and the progressive group Media Matters for America, was launched in 2021 to combat COVID-19 disinformation and election falsehoods targeting Latinos.