Facebook, Instagram act on US Court's anti-abortion verdict

Washington: Following the Roe v Wade verdict made by the Supreme Court of the United States of America (SCOTUS) that banned abortion, social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have begun to remove posts that offered abortion pills.

The High Court, on Friday, overruled its 1973 decision that declared access to abortion a constitutional right. Following this, several social media posts, memes, and status that offered pills via mail surfaced all over the broadcast media including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and TV broadcasts, Zignal Labs reported to the Associated Press.

Some of the posts removed by Instagram thus say; "DM me if you want to order abortion pills, but want them sent to my address instead of yours."

A similar post on Facebook read, "If you send me your address, I will mail you abortion pills."

However, both the posts were taken down within minutes. On Monday, Vice Media First reported that Meta, the parent of both Facebook and Instagram, was taking down similar posts.

Andy Stone, the Meta spokesperson in his tweet on Monday confirmed that the company will not allow any individuals to gift or sell pharmaceuticals on its platform, but has allowed them to share information on the methods to access pills. "We've discovered some instances of incorrect enforcement and are correcting these," Stone said in the tweet.

Abortion pills can still be legally obtained through online consultation from prescribers with training certificates.

Attorney general Merrick Garland on Friday said that states may not ban mifepristone, an abortion inducer, in disagreement with FDA's expert judgment on its safety and efficacy.