Screenshot from Alliance Defending Freedom video opposing medication abortion

Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is leading a multi-state effort in demanding that YouTube remove specific abortion-related information from its site.

Bird and fifteen other Republican attorneys general wrote to YouTube this week and demanded that it remove or revise what Bird calls a “dangerous and misleading” label attached to a video that pertains to chemical abortion pills.

The label, Bird says, is “targeting pro-life messages” and contains inaccurate information that jeopardizes women’s health.

“We are disappointed to see your platform suppress pro-life and pro-woman messages by distorting them with false information,” the letter states. “Your bias against pro-life and pro-woman messages is un-American; inconsistent with the liberties protected by the First Amendment; and, in this case, illegal. It must stop.”

At issue is a video that the conservative organization the Alliance Defending Freedom has posted to YouTube. The video references the alleged dangers of unsupervised, at-home use of abortion pills.

YouTube, in turn, has attached a label to the video that states: “An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is done by a licensed health care professional.”

“The last sentence of the notice is both false and misleading,” the attorneys general state in their letter. “It suggests that chemical abortions are performed by trained professionals. They are not … We demand that you remove or correct the notice immediately.”

Editor’s note from Laura Belin: As of March 6, YouTube had changed the “Abortion health information” label to the following text:

“An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It can be done two different ways: Medication abortion, which uses medicines to end the pregnancy. It is sometimes called a “medical abortion” or “abortion with pills.” Procedural abortion, a procedure to remove the pregnancy from the uterus. It is sometimes called a “surgical abortion.”

ATTORNEYS GENERAL SAY LABEL IS “BLATANT MISINFORMATION”

The Alliance Defending Freedom is fighting a Food & Drug Administration decision to remove a requirement for medical supervision before, during, and after taking an abortion pill. That change, opponents of the pill argue, endangers women’s health.

Bird and the attorneys general claim that about 1 in 25 women experience severe complications from using the pills and require emergency room medical care.

“Women deserve to know the truth about the dangers of chemical abortion pills,” Bird said in a written statement. “YouTube must end its blatant misinformation campaign that puts women at risk and quit targeting pro-life messages.”

The attorneys general are also arguing that YouTube is biased “against pro-life and pro-woman messages” and that the social media platform is violating the First Amendment and potentially deceiving consumers.

The fifteen state attorneys general who joined Bird in signing the letter to YouTube are from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DEFENDS YOUTUBE LABEL

Planned Parenthood North Central States says the YouTube-imposed label is a medically and scientifically accurate description of abortion.” The organization says the attorneys general, in their letter to YouTube, are making false claims about the safety of medication abortion.

With a medical professional, patients can safely decide when the abortion starts, where it should happen, and who should be with them, Planned Parenthood said Wednesday, adding that federal data shows medication abortion has a “safety record” of more than 99 percent and that serious complications are rare.

“This is just another deplorable attempt to stoke fear among the public, who now lives in a constant state of manufactured chaos,” said Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States. “Medication abortion has proven to be an extremely safe and effective way for patients to end a pregnancy for more than nearly two decades. It breaks down existing barriers to care that would otherwise require people to drive hundreds of miles to access an abortion and empowers patients during very personal medical decisions. People need greater access to accurate information about abortion care, especially now.”