Facebook, Instagram take down abortion pill posts

The social media company Meta is removing posts offering abortion pills to women in states with pro-life laws. Posts explaining how to obtain the pills in the mail or offering to mail them to interested women spiked across numerous platforms Friday after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to regulate abortion. An Associated Press reporter wrote up a Facebook post offering to send abortion pills to anyone who sent their address. The AP said Facebook took the post down in under a minute and then put the reporter’s account on “warning” status.

What’s Meta’s reasoning? Spokesman Andy Stone tweeted Monday that the company will not tolerate individuals selling pharmaceuticals on its platform but will allow posts sharing content on how to access abortion pills. It admitted to applying the standard inconsistently.

Dig deeper: Listen to Paul Butler’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how churches can respond to the Supreme Court’s pro-life ruling.