Instagram and Facebook have banned posts offering abortion pills after Rowe v. Wade was overturned

Facebook and Instagram immediately began removing posts offering abortion pills to women who may not have access to them following a Supreme Court ruling that deprives the procedure of constitutional protection.

Such social media posts were said to be aimed at helping women living in states where existing abortion laws abruptly went into effect on Friday. The Supreme Court then overturned Rowe v. Wade, its 1973 ruling declaring access to abortion a constitutional right.

Memes and status updates explaining how women can legally receive abortion pills by mail exploded on social platforms. Some have even offered to send prescriptions by mail to women living in states that now ban the procedure.

Almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram began removing some of these posts, just as millions in the United States were seeking clarity on access to abortion. General mentions of abortion pills, as well as publications mentioning specific versions such as mifepristone and misoprostol, suddenly surfaced on Friday morning on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and TV shows, according to an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

By Sunday, Zignal had counted more than 250,000 such mentions.

The AP received a screenshot Friday of an Instagram post from a woman who offered to buy or send abortion pills by mail minutes after a court ruled to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

“Send me a message if you want to order abortion pills, but want them to be sent to my address instead of yours,” the Instagram post said.

Instagram downloaded it for a moment. First Vice Media reported on Monday that Meta, a parent of Facebook and Instagram, was removing posts about abortion pills.

On Monday, an AP reporter tested how the company would respond to a similar post on Facebook, writing: “If you send me your address, I will send you abortion pills by mail.”

Post removed within one minute.

The Facebook account was immediately set as a “warning” for the post, which Facebook said violated its standards for “weapons, animals and other regulated goods.”

However, when the AP reporter made exactly the same post, but replaced the words “abortion pills” with “rifle,” the post remained intact. A post with the same exact offer to send Travel was also left and is not considered an infringement.

Marijuana is illegal under federal law and it is illegal to send it by mail.

However, abortion pills can be legally obtained by mail after online consultation from prescribing doctors who have been certified and trained.

An email spokesman for Meta outlined the company’s policies that prohibit the sale of certain items, including weapons, alcohol, drugs and pharmaceuticals. The company did not explain the obvious inconsistencies in the implementation of this policy.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone confirmed in a tweet Monday that the company will not allow individuals to donate or sell pharmaceuticals on its platform, but will allow content that shares information on how to access pills. Stone acknowledged some problems with the implementation of this policy in its platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.

“We’ve identified some cases of misapplication and are correcting them,” Stone said in a tweet.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the United States should not ban mifepristone, the drug used to induce abortion.

“The United States cannot ban mifepristone based on disagreement with FDA expert judgment on its safety and efficacy,” Garland said in a statement Friday.

But some Republicans have already tried to prevent residents from receiving abortion pills in the mail, with some states such as West Virginia and Tennessee banning providers from prescribing drugs through telemedicine counseling.