TikTok’s search engine is promoting anti-abortion propaganda when users search for information about medication abortions. 

TikTok’s search bar, like those of many other social media platforms, allows users to search for specific words or phrases and then displays the top video results. 

A Media Matters analysis found that searching for the terms “medical abortion,” “medication abortion,” and “mifepristone” (a drug used for the medical termination of pregnancy) on TikTok returns — as the top result — a video seemingly attempting to deter women from obtaining a medication abortion by misleading about what's likely to happen during the experience

“What many women aren’t told when they obtain these pills is that they are very likely to see their deceased baby during this process, and he or she will not simply look like a clump of tissue,” says the narrator of the video.

Contrary to the video’s claim that women are “very likely to see their deceased baby” during the medication abortion, experts largely agree that passing a recognizable embryo is unlikely.

It’s normal to see large blood clots or clumps of tissue during a medication abortion. According to Dr. Cheryl Chastine, as quoted in Women’s Health Magazine, “You can expect around 4 to 6 hours of strong cramping and heavy bleeding, including some large blood clots. You almost certainly won't see anything recognizable as you pass your pregnancy tissue.” 

The likelihood of passing identifiable fetal tissue increases with the gestational age of the pregnancy, per Doctors Without Borders. 

“Most women do not see or notice anything when the pregnancy comes out,” the organization explains in a video. “If the pregnancy is around nine weeks or later, women may also see a small embryo.”

The Food and Drug Administration approves medical termination of pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation and, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of abortions in the United States occur at nine weeks of pregnancy or earlier.

The TikTok video comes from What Would You Say, a right-wing Christian organization that, per its YouTube channel, creates animated content that provides “quick answers to hard questions about gender, race, identity, equality, justice, and more.” 

The Guttmacher Institute found that medication abortions accounted for 63% of all clinician-provided abortions in 2023 in states without total abortion bans.