“Please have an abortion with me,” Sunni, a single mother from Brooklyn, says as she spins around her kitchen to the sound of a jazzy piano, before explaining the steps she took to end her pregnancy at home. was introduced to TikTok viewers.
As states expand restrictions on abortion and the issue is likely to be at the forefront of the presidential election, women are creating videos on social media explaining their own abortions and sharing information about how to obtain an abortion. Sharing practical information.
Sunni explained to viewers that she wanted information when planning an abortion. “This is the video I was looking for,” she said.
Reactions to her video, which has been viewed more than 400,000 times and garnered comments both sympathetic and condemnatory, highlight how personal and divisive the issue continues to be in the lead-up to November's election. It shows.
One viewer, an activist with the group Protect Life Michigan, remixed the video on the group's own TikTok account, criticizing the Sunni tone and the production of the video in the first place.
“I just don't understand how we make videos, laughing and joking about going through the abortion process,” the campaigner said.
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 led to a wave of abortion bans and restrictions across much of the United States. Currently, 21 states have banned or restricted the process, moving ahead of the standards set by Roe.
In response, there has been an explosion of social media content related to abortion, some of it overtly political, as women seek answers, seek support, or simply share. Some are descriptive, some are informational, and some are testimonial.
The landscape of access to abortion is rapidly changing. The justices last month heard arguments over whether to restrict access to the widely used abortion pill, with a decision expected in June or July of this year. This month, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions.
Former President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court's work in overturning Roe v. Wade, but has since distanced himself from the idea of a nationwide abortion ban. President Biden, on the other hand, sees an advantage in pushing the narrowing of abortion access to Republicans.
With laws in flux from state to state, Sunnis created TikToks to explain how to obtain abortion pills and how to perform abortions at home. In other videos on the site, women struggle with their experiences and express everything from relief to regret. These personal videos have become fodder for political campaigns and have been used to advocate for expanded abortion rights or further restrictions.
Confusion about where and what forms of abortion are allowed in each state is leading young people looking to terminate their pregnancies to turn to social media for advice, researchers say. found.
“Confusion, confusion and stigma are the points of abortion bans and targeted regulation,” said Rebecca Nall, founder of an online database that directs users to abortion resources.
“More and more people are asking their most personal questions online, and more and more people are providing information,” she added.
Before Roe v. Wade, desperate women called Jane, an underground abortion network, for advice on what to do about unwanted pregnancies. What followed was a campaign to encourage women to talk openly about abortion.
As women turn to TikTok for information and self-expression, the app also serves as a forum for discussion. In some videos, viewers asked practical questions about procuring abortion pills and finding a provider. They shared a fear of physical pain and anxiety about the logistical complexities involved in the arrangement. Other viewers expressed regret about having an abortion.
Some critics criticized the women for having abortions and speaking out about them without remorse.
The women who share their stories, and the viewers who write to them asking for advice, are having potentially dangerous conversations. Attorneys general in some states have expressed a desire to prosecute those who “aid and abet” abortions, including informants, and subpoena their online messages.
The 30-year-old Sunni, who asked that her full name not be published for fear of being further targeted by abortion opponents, said in an interview that she became interested in reproductive health justice when she became pregnant with her daughter in 2021. said.
She became active on TikTok and became alarmed when she discovered videos of people promoting herbal remedies such as parsley to induce abortions. After experiencing her first difficult birth when she became pregnant last year, she decided to have an abortion and share her experience with her followers.
Since TikTok is full of activity from anti-abortion activists and abortion rights advocates, Sunni said she wanted to focus on the practicalities of medical abortion, the most common form of abortion in the United States. That included orders to take mifepristone and misoprostol pills, as well as creature comforts like Totino's frozen pizza, which she relied on to help her manage her pain and recover. It was included.
“This is something that so many people experience,” she said in an interview. “There are people around you who are going through this, and you can't heal until they feel normal and accepted.”
Her video received more than 1,000 comments. Sunni said she has received hundreds of messages from girls and young women seeking instructions on how to obtain medicine and manage their pain.
“You have to navigate it,” she said, “and no one can tell you how.”
Another testimony was from Canadian Michaela Attu. She said in an interview that she was shocked by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, especially since access to abortion care was not difficult in Canada.
In the TikTok video, she takes viewers through multiple hospital visits near her home in Vancouver, from an ultrasound to confirm her pregnancy to a shot of her feet in stirrups as she begins the procedure for an abortion. I took him with me.
In another video that has been viewed 7.5 million times, Atsu spoke about the heartbreak of becoming pregnant with the man she loved but not being able to get over it.
Atz and her husband plan to have children, but she said she was facing mental health issues when she became pregnant last year and was not ready to start a family.
“I wanted to show that abortion is complicated,” she said.
Some women created TikTok to express their grief over their abortions.
One viewer commented that watching another woman's abortion video reminded her of the pain she endured during her own abortion when she was 16 years old.
Desiree Daragiacomo, 33, a writer and poet living in California, recorded the video while preparing for her abortion appointment.
“I'm healthy and stable,” she told viewers. “I just don't want kids.”
Dara Giacomo, 33, said in an interview that she wanted to share her story to challenge common theories about why people have abortions.
As abortion rights become increasingly targeted, what women share about abortion on social media is in the spotlight.
Attorneys general in Texas, Alabama and Louisiana have expressed interest in prosecuting abortion providers and other entities that coordinate them, and whether those who share information online will be held accountable. Uncertainty is arising.
“There's a movement underway to criminalize information,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who has written extensively about abortion.
In July, a Nebraska teenager was charged with concealing the death and aborted fetus and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. In the case, prosecutors subpoenaed Facebook messages she exchanged with her mother, in which the two discussed abortion pills.
The Nebraska case suggests that the conversations people have about abortion can be used against them, Ziegler said.
“In the post-Dobbs era, there is an interesting relationship between sharing stories to destigmatize experiences and the fact that speaking out can create unintended legal risks. And there are difficult trade-offs,” she said.
Fear of being punished for sharing information about abortion was just one of the ways Daragiacomo described her experience as feeling “isolating.”
“There are so many things that prevent us from telling our stories honestly,” she said.