How social media censorship deepens abortion stigma and harms people's reproductive health

Social media has become a primary source of health information for millions of people. For communities seeking information on abortion and reproductive care, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Google (and now ChatGPT) are often the first place they turn for accessible guidance, peer stories, clinic details and aftercare tips. When those platforms censor medically accurate content about abortion and wider women’s health issues, the consequences are more than inconvenient. Censorship widens information gaps, reinforces shame, and makes it harder for people to get safe care when they need it.

Censorship is widespread and targeted

Campaign research into the censorship of women’s health content found that censorship is not a rare glitch. In a large open survey, CensHERship reported that 95 per cent of women’s health and sexual wellbeing creators had experienced content moderation issues. Many respondents reported repeated takedowns, labelling of factual posts as “adult content” and opaque moderation decisions with no clear path to meaningful appeal. These patterns show systemic misclassification of health content as sexual content rather than as public health information.

Why censorship matters for abortion access

Abortion is time-sensitive. 

People need clear, reliable information about options, safety, clinic contacts, medication guidance and aftercare. When content that explains how medical abortion works, or that provides empathy and harm reduction, is removed or down ranked, people are left with fewer safe routes to find accurate support. This amplifies stigma because it signals that information about abortion belongs in a category labelled obscene or inappropriate. That label then filters back into public perception and policy debates and makes it harder to normalise abortion as healthcare.

Campaigners and industry leaders have warned that censorship can cost lives. The problem goes beyond takedowns. Medically accurate posts are often restricted so they reach fewer people. Ads for services and innovations are rejected. Small charities and startups tell stories of lost revenue, reduced reach and the additional unpaid labour of repeatedly rewording essential information just to get it posted.

Stigma, silence and the school gap

Censorship sits on top of existing gaps in formal education. In the UK, for example, statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education was introduced to improve young people’s access to quality information. But polling from the Sex Education Forum shows that only around half of young people in 2024 rated their RSE as good or very good, and many young people report gaps around pleasure, consent and navigating real-world sexual situations. When schools do not cover lived experience and practical information, people turn to the internet. If the internet has been gated by moderation policies that do not differentiate between harmful sexual content and evidence-led health guidance, the net result is an information desert for those who need it most.

The chilling effects on creators and organisations

Because moderation is inconsistent and opaque, many creators, educators and charities self-censor. The censHERship report on this issue shows that more than half of respondents have changed the way they speak online to avoid takedowns. Self-censorship means fewer personal stories, less practical advice about aftercare and fewer honest conversations that could reduce shame and encourage safer choices. 

The economic effects are real. 

Female-founded femtech companies and women’s health charities report blocked ads, restricted fundraising and reputational harm when their educational work is mislabelled as prohibited content. That economic squeeze reduces innovation and reduces the sector’s ability to respond to unmet need.

Censorship worsens inequities

The people most affected by a lack of access to reproductive information are often those already marginalised. Poorer people, people in regions with fewer services, young people and people from marginalised communities are less likely to have easy access to clinic networks or well-resourced health services. Social media is supposed to be a democratic information channel. When it is not, those who most urgently need practical advice and harm reduction are the ones who lose out.

What needs to change

There are practical fixes that platforms, policymakers and funders can pursue.

Platforms should: 

• Update moderation systems so that medical context is considered before content is labelled as sexual or adult. 

• Publish clearer categories for health and reproductive content and create faster, specialist appeal processes for health creators. 

• Work with independent clinical advisors to distinguish between non-consensual or exploitative sexual content and factual health material.

Policymakers and regulators should: 

• Hold platforms accountable under digital safety laws to explain moderation decisions that affect public health. 

• Fund public education and resource hubs so that health information is available outside of commercial platforms.

Charities and creators should: 

• Keep producing evidence-based, accessible content and archive it off-platform where it can be reliably accessed. 

• Build networks so an appeal or takedown can be amplified and documented. 

• Lobby collectively for policy change and transparency.

What we can do now

If you run a sexual health or abortion support account, document moderation incidents and share them with advocacy groups like CensHERship. If you are a consumer of health information, verify sources, save trusted resources offline and amplify clinic and charity contacts. If you are a policymaker or platform employee, treat this not as a content moderation nuisance but as a public health issue.

When medically accurate information about abortion is removed or hidden, the outcome is not just a frustrated creator or a missed post. The outcome is less safe care, deeper stigma and a public conversation that remains skewed by silence. 

Stigma thrives where accurate information is blocked. 

Fixing moderation systems, strengthening sex education and supporting creators and charities to survive and thrive are essential steps toward better reproductive health for everyone.

Written by Amari Leigh

Sex-positive and Women's Health Social Media Manager

Accredited Sex and Relationship Educator