The Daily Beast
Women do their abortions on TikTok – but is it real?
Photo illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos via TikTok The woman in the ten-second TikTok is wearing the Gen-Z uniform: matching purple tie-colored shorts and a crop top, thick white sneakers, built-up socks. Over the infectious sounds of the song ‘Photo ID’, she vampers for a selfie and then turns the camera to move the length of the doctor’s office in which she sits. It ends with a shot of her in the chair for the exam room, kicking her legs out and giggling. “This is a wonderful day to have an abortion,” reads the caption. The video is a clear and unapologetic representation of abortion – the kind of movement activists have been trying to break into the mainstream for years and opponents of abortion view it as ‘sick and depraved’. It is playful, offensive, an immediate hit. This is also completely false. ‘I just started posting videos of me on a random doctor’s appointment and said’ I get an abortion ‘, the creator of the video, a 21-year-old college student going to @abortionqweenn, to The Daily Beast said. “I was urgently needed.” TikTok, the standard clubhouse of Gen Z, is also a bell ringer of adolescent activism. This summer, as the Black Lives Matter movement rose, users uploaded videos of victims of police brutality and footage of racial protests. (According to one analysis, TikTok users were twice as likely that non-users recently attended a Black Lives Matter demonstration.) In June, TikTokers helped attend a tank after a Trump rally by buying tickets that they did not intend to use. last February, a video of a young woman undergoing an abortion brought the existence of pro-choice TikTok to the fore. The clip, which was apparently shot and uploaded by her friend, starts with a positive pregnancy test and then cuts to the outside of a Planned Parenthood, then the inside of an exam room. It is set on Bruno Mars’ “It Will Rain” and contains a recording of the woman pumping and laughing. By the time the creator removed the video, it had been seen thousands of times and had caused a severe conservative setback: “If society celebrates abortion, we should be surprised to see this kind of cruelty,” said Lila Rose, president of the anti-organization, tweeted. abortion group Live Action. ‘What happened to’ abortions must be safe, legal and rare ‘? “Now they are being celebrated and streamed on social media,” added founder Charlie Kirk of the American turning point. Feel Your Faith in 15 Seconds: Meet The Christians Conquering TikTok The account that posted the video was eventually removed, but the genre grew, just last week Autumn Lindsey, a spokesperson for Students for Life, uploaded a video that “It’s disgusting and heartbreaking and should not be a trend on the internet,” she said in an Instagram Live video. “Videos like this are the” trend “of young people posting abortions on TikTok. prove that the pro-abortion party celebrates abortions. ‘ “Absolutely unreal!” wrote one commenter. “THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING!” In fact, many of the videos can be literally ‘unreal.’ The Daily Beast has found more than a dozen clips of people claiming to have been to abortion appointments, ranging from obvious jokes — a woman with swinging her feet off the exam table, next to the words ‘when he sends you a good abortion’ – to straight shots from an exam room with the hashtag #abortioncheck. In most of them, the women smile, dance, and lip-sync to whatever songs are popular – do essentially what everyone else does on TikTok. The Daily Beast tried to contact all the video creators. Only one, @abortionqween, replied. , both work on reproduction rights, and both make almost exclusively content on abortion and contraception. (They actually met on TikTok and recently got together.) At one point, @abortionqween said, she realizes that recording her doctor appointments and it as abortions transmitted a recipe is for an immediate hit. “I think a lot of my followers know that I do not get about 50 abortions a month,” she said. ‘But people will just see it and I think it wants to normalize. People will also get very angry about it. But it always goes viral. ‘The strategy seems to have worked. The couple gained a combined 165,000 followers and more than 20 million views, despite the fact that their accounts were repeatedly blocked by TikTok moderators. (TikTok says there are no policies banning the discussion of abortion. After reaching The Daily Beast, the women who were previously blocked were restored.) Many of their videos contain medical advice on the abortion procedure or information on how to get one To get. Others are disrespectfully humorous: one of @ abortioncounselor’s first videos shows her dancing to the Megan Thee Stallion song “Thotiana,” under the caption “my fetus dances just before it is aborted.” Another version contains a drive-through and the words’ in-n-out after an abortion hit differently. ‘For those accustomed to the stoicism of the mainstream abortion debate, the playfulness of the videos can be surprising. Even some advocates for abortion rights matter with some of the tactics of the couple. But for Amelia Bonow, the founder of Shout Your Abortion, the videos are the latest step in normalizing a procedure that has historically been stigmatized and has remained silent. announces abortion stories because she felt they needed a greater presence on TikTok. “The idea that abortion is always a serious and sad thing is outdated and does not reflect reality, and it has certainly not done us any favors,” she told The Daily Beast in an email. Abortion TikTok, she said, ‘is a nail in the coffin of the old way of doing things. We can talk about abortion, but it does not always have to be difficult. Sometimes it’s hilarious. Behind all the humor is a core of truth: both @abortionqween and @abortioncounselor have had abortions for the past six years. When she had her hair cut at age 18, @abortionqween said she knew of only one person who underwent the procedure. Reading and watching stories of other people’s abortions online comforted her and inspired her to make videos herself. ‘We get so many DMs from young people every week like,’ I’m pregnant, I want an abortion, what do I do? “She said. “Of course I can not respond to everyone, but I like to be even through my videos someone I did not have.” “It’s not a question of whether it’s true or not, it’s that they’re exposed to positive messages about abortion,” her friend added. Especially for those living in conservative households, she said: “This may be the first time they see something positive about abortion, and just being able to plant the seed can really change people’s lives.” The TikTok year has taken over the world and driven Trump crazy The two are not the only abortion triggers on TikTok. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a group of Gen-Z ‘clinic defenders’ went viral many times for videos of their protests against abortions outside a local clinic. In one, they shoot Whitney Houston out of a parked car and ask a protester to come dance with them. In another, a defender of the clinic reads the text for ‘WAP’ to drown a man reading the Bible. The latter has been viewed more than a million times. While the tactic is popular, it is not without controversy: in August, the same day the WAP video was posted, four of the organization’s board members resigned, citing ‘hard and emotional growth pains’. During the announcement on Facebook, one commenter wrote: “Just shocked at the direction I see this organization going on the social media platforms. If this is the way the clinic is going, I have lost so much respect. ‘Videos of abortion clinics are also controversial, even within the range of motion. If clinics can be identified in the videos, providers say, it could pose physical risks. And videos shot in waiting rooms of clinics can pose a privacy threat to other patients. According to Mona Walia, owner of All Women’s Health Clinic in Tacoma, Washington, fake videos, such as @ abortionqween’s, run the risk of spreading misinformation. Maybe someone will acknowledge that urgent care and accept that it offers abortions, she said, or they will compare the fictional experience to their own. “As providers, we want to normalize abortion,” she said. “We just have to find a way to do it so that it’s out there, but the information is accurate.” Planned Parenthood, the largest single provider of abortions in the United States, supported the clinic’s videos and said in a statement that there should be ‘no expectation of silence or shame’ about the procedure. “Many organizations and individuals have been working for years to end the stigma surrounding abortion, and we are proud to work with them,” senior communications director Erica Sackin said in a statement. “Eliminating the abortion stigma and its impact on patients, staff and policies is an important cultural shift that cannot happen fast enough.” For @abortioncounselor, the criticism is of her work – whether it comes from well-meaning proponents or opponents of abortion rights. “I did not join TikTok to make videos for people who already support abortion,” she said. “I made it for people who are struggling with their decision. And I also made it to educate young people about their rights. And opti us.” She added: “There are just so many things that have changed because of us videos, that a person who does not like the choice really does not deceive me, because once again our videos are not just for that. ‘And because everyone who says that abortion should not be a laughing matter, can joke on them The original viral video in which the teenager goes to Planned Parenthood for an abortion also does not appear to be real. According to ScreenRant, the creator posted a second video – also since its removal – claiming that her friend did not do not get an abortion but simply go for an ultrasound Read more at The Daily Beast Send it here to The Daily Beast Get our top stories in your inbox every day Sign up now! Daily membership of the animal: Beast Inside goes deeper in on the stories that matter to you.Learn more.