ArticlePloS one2020
Shining the light on abortion: Drivers of online abortion searches across the United States in 2018.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Using Natural Language Processing to Describe the Use of an Online Community for Abortion During 2022: Dynamic Topic Modeling Analysis of Reddit Posts.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Experiences seeking, sourcing, and using abortion pills at home in the United States through an online telemedicine service.SSM. Qualitative research in health · 2022Article
- Emerging Technology: Preparing Tomorrow's MCH Workforce to Innovate for Equity.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Article
- Using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to Access Google Data and Gain Insights Into Searches on Birth Control in Louisiana and Mississippi, 2014-2018: Infoveillance Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Article
- Behavioral Innovations to Access Abortion Post-Dobbs: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Reddit's r/abortion Community in 2022.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
- Article
- Exploring Google Searches for Out-of-Clinic Medication Abortion in the United States During 2020: Infodemiology Approach Using Multiple Samples.JMIR infodemiologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextLegal abortion restrictions, stigma and fear can inhibit people's voices in clinical and social settings posing barriers to decision-making and abortion care. The internet allows individuals to make informed decisions privately. We explored what state-level policy dimensions were associated with volume of Google searches on abortion and on the abortion pill in 2018.
methodsWe used Google Trends to quantify the relative search volume (RSV) for "abortion" and "abortion pill" (or "abortion pills" hereafter referred to as "abortion pill") as a proportion of total search volume for all queries in each US state. We also identified the top search queries most related to "abortion" and "abortion pill" and considered these as indicators of population concern. Key exposures were healthcare cost, access and health outcomes, and number of legal restrictions and protections at the state level. In descriptive analyses, we first grouped the states into tertiles according to their RSV on "abortion" and "abortion pill". To examine the association between each exposure (and other covariates) with the two outcomes, we used unadjusted and adjusted linear regression.
resultsThe average RSV for "abortion" in the low, moderate and high tertile groups was 48 (SD = 3.25), 55.5 (SD = 2.11) and 64 (SD = 4.72) (p-value <0.01) respectively; for "abortion pill" the average RSVs were 39.6 (SD = 16.68), 61.9 (SD = 5.82) and 81.7 (SD = 6.67) (p-value < 0.01) respectively. Concerns about contraceptive availability and access, and unplanned pregnancies independently predicted the relative search volumes for abortion and abortion pill. According to our baseline models, states with low contraceptive access had far higher abortion searches. Volume of abortion pill searches was additionally positively associated with poor health outcomes, poor access to abortion facilities and non-rurality.
conclusionSearch traffic analysis can help discern abortion-policy influences on population concerns and require close monitoring. State-policies can predict search volume for abortion and abortion pill. In 2018, concerns about contraceptives and unplanned pregnancies, predicted abortion searches. Current decreases in public contraceptive funding and the Title X Gag rule designed to block millions of people from getting care at Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of birth control and abortion care, may increase concerns about unintended pregnancies that can lead to increases in online relative volume of abortion searches.
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