The Birth of Disinformation

Welcome to The Birth of Disinformation, a podcast addressing the post-Roe crisis in abortion care, reproductive justice and bodily autonomy in the United States. Today, we will be discussing the disinformation and conspiracies that surround birth control and abortion, and how these are ultimately capitalizing on vulnerable women and upholding white supremacy. 

The introduction of the birth control pill in 1960 has been one of the most important advances for women. Before the pill was introduced, women (especially married women) had little to no choice when it came to getting pregnant and having children. At the height of the baby boom, marital rape was legal and abortion was illegal, leaving married women without proper protection against pregnancy, as the contraceptives that did exist relied on cooperation from men: condoms, withdrawal, vasectomies, etc. The birth control pill allowed women to effectively and reliably control their own fertility. 

The 1970s brought another revolutionary advancement in women’s reproductive healthcare- Roe vs. Wade which ruled that the Constitution protected a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Access to the birth control pill and safe abortions for all women proved to increase women’s economic empowerment, educational opportunities, and help ensure that children being born are wanted and provided safe environments growing up¹. 

The long fight against abortion by conservatives has been present for as long as abortion has existed. While conservatives hide behind their “pro-life” beliefs, attributing being anti-abortion to the idea that an unborn fetus deserves a chance at life, and should be given the same protection as a child, many know that the true fight against abortion has deep roots in white supremacy, and that remains to be their true intentions to this day. 

After Roe was overturned in 2022, Republican congresswoman Mary Miller, allegedly misspoke and called the Supreme Court’s decision a “historic victory for white life” at a campaign rally with former President Donald Trump². Though she claims to have misspoken, this quote is quite representative of the true beliefs of many who are anti-abortion. These beliefs come from the Replacement Theory³–  a far-right conspiracy stating that left-leaning voters are pro-immigration and pro-abortion as some sort of greater plan to replace the white race. 

The anti-abortion movement began in the mid-nineteenth century, during a time when women could receive abortions induced through herbal or medicinal remedies from midwives or other women. The mid-nineteenth century was also a time when many immigrants came to the United States, and black people were finally freed from slavery. White people started getting concerned that these groups who they viewed as inferior to themselves would then begin to reproduce at faster rates, and would eventually outnumber them. Thus, the anti-abortion rhetoric was born.

 If upper class and middle class women, which were the groups with the easiest access to abortions, could no longer receive them , then more white children would be born in the US, slowing down this process and easing the fears of those worried about being replaced. Anti-abortion propaganda effectively made the procedure completely illegal by the 1900s. 

When Roe vs Wade made abortion legal nationally, those opposed needed something else to run on, as white supremacy was no longer the widely accepted idea in American politics that it once was. Today, the GOP hides behind a Christian belief that pregnancies are a part of God’s plan, and that fetuses are entitled to life. 

The anti-abortion movement has fundamentally been about upholding white supremacy. And now with Roe being overturned , far-right white supremacists need something else to attack to ensure that as many white babies are being born as possible. This is where the disinformation about birth comes into play, but most of these lies are not coming from who we might expect. Rather than Christian nationalists and conservative politicians pioneering the anti-birth control movement, an influx of anti-science believers have been at the forefront of this movement, unsuspectingly recruiting more women to follow their agenda.  

Today, with great advancements in scientific research and with over 60 years of birth control data being available, we would expect to see a society that celebrates health care advancements such as the pill, and the effect it has had on the female liberation movement.

However, we are not seeing much of that. Instead, a growing number of people have started to turn their backs on scientists and doctors, and turn towards natural remedies, under the false belief that the government and pharmaceutical companies are trying to control our bodies and profit off of our ignorance. 

These beliefs have existed for a while, but during the pandemic, there was an uprising of these natural health communities. Many of these groups are far right conspirators and white supremacists disguised under the facade of being “organic, crunchy, and anti-government.” ⁴ 

These groups  believe that birth control is extremely dangerous for women in the long run, and often falsely equate birth control to abortions. To them, the push for birth control isn’t a feminist breakthrough, but is instead a part of a greater scheme to benefit big pharma and allow doctors and the government to be the sole regulators of what we put in our bodies. Many of these people believe they are rebels fighting against the system, but ironically they are just falling victim to an alternative system themselves. I began to notice this online not too long ago; women speaking to other women, urging them to go off the pill and instead opt for following their natural fertility cycles as their main form of birth control. 

After digging deeper I noticed that most of these women weren’t just promoting natural birth control methods, they were promoting a specific app called “Natural Cycles”.⁵ Known as a “digital contraceptive”- this app requires its users to take their temperature every morning, and with this information, coupled with their period information, the app produces an estimate of their fertility cycle, with green days meaning “go ahead and have unprotected sex” and red days meaning there’s a high chance of pregnancy.

 Many women have found themselves using this as a “natural and safe” alternative to birth control, that doesn’t give in to big pharma. However, unlike the birth control pill, this contraceptive doesn’t come for free. A Natural Cycles subscription costs $100 annually, not even including the “Oura smart ring” which is meant to automatically track health metrics, such as temperature, and send this information to the Natural Cycles app. The ring is an additional $300. 

Apps like Natural Cycles profit off these crunchy, anti-government communities who believe they are being rebellious by not feeding into Big Pharma, without realizing they themselves are being taken advantage of. 

Although it is clear that safe contraceptives are extremely beneficial for women and children, these advancements have of course been challenged by conservatives and traditionalists who are focused on pushing their white supremacist agendas. And with the general turn on science that has plagued our country in recent years, more people are vulnerable to indoctrination of these dangerous beliefs. 

We must be mindful of the sneaky ways in which far-right conspirators brainwash the public, so others don’t fall down this slippery slope of alt-right extremism and white-supremacy, packaged as Christianity and natural health advocacy.

Landau, Meryl. 2018. “Contraception, Birth Control, and Women in America | Everyday Health.” EverydayHealth.com. July 6, 2018. https://www.everydayhealth.com/birth-control/contraception-birth-control-women-america/.

Parness, Ayelet. 2024. “Deep Dive: The Great Replacement Theory.” HIAS. November 2024. https://hias.org/news/deep-dive-great-replacement-theory/.

Sullivan, Becky. 2022. “A GOP Congresswoman Said the End of Roe Is a ‘Historic Victory for White Life.’” NPR, June 26, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/26/1107710215/roe-overturned-mary-miller-historic-victory-for-white-life.

“Oral Contraceptive Pill.” n.d. Dittrick Medical History Center. https://artsci.case.edu/dittrick/online-exhibits/history-of-birth-control/contraception-in-america-1950-present-day/oral-contraceptive-pill/.

“The Pill and the Women’s Liberation Movement.” 2019. Pbs.org. 2019. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-and-womens-liberation-movement/.

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