YouTube to remove videos with abortion misinformation

Washington, July 22: YouTube will be removing videos spreading false information about abortion, the American online video-sharing platform said in a statement.

The crackdown on misinformation about the medical procedure comes as women seek reliable pregnancy-related information online in the wake of the right to abortions being revoked in many areas across the United States.

"We believe it's important to connect people to content from authoritative sources regarding health topics, and we continuously review our policies and products as real-world events unfold," YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said in a statement cited by CNN.

"Starting today and ramping up over the next few weeks, we will remove content that provides instructions for unsafe abortion methods or promotes false claims about abortion safety under our medical misinformation policies," it stated further.

The development comes about a month after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the case that had protected the legality of abortion in the country for nearly 50 years. Medical experts have warned that bad actors may try to capitalize on the confusion and emotional upset caused by various states limiting access to abortion in order to spread false claims about the procedure.

According to CNN, toxicologists have also raised concerns about dangerous "DIY" abortion methods that have been shared on social media.

It has to be noted that TikTok recently started removing abortion-related videos that violate its policy against medical misinformation, including those that share potentially dangerous advice about how to self-induce an abortion.