Differences in abortion fund messaging in English and Spanish: A social media analysis

To assess differences in U.S.-based abortion fund messaging on social media in English and Spanish. Abortion funds are private philanthropic organizations that provide abortion seekers with direct funding and logistical support for abortion care.

This multi-methods study applied linguistic and content analysis of social media posts from the 95 abortion funds affiliated with the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) between June 24, 2022 and January 1, 2025. All social media posts underwent large-scale linguistic analysis. All Spanish posts and a random sampling of 10% of English posts were selected for qualitative thematic analysis.

Of 10,118 total posts, only three languages were represented: 10,051 posts were in English (>99%), 66 posts (<1%) were in Spanish, and one post was in Portuguese. Fifty-five percent of English posts include content about sexual health and well-being compared to 13% of Spanish posts. English posts described abortion sociopolitical landscapes, while Spanish posts described access to abortion services. Many Spanish posts included poorly translated or culturally miscontextualized phrases.

Most abortion funds published posts in English only, and messaging varied by language and included low-quality translations. Future work should explore hidden assumptions and strategies behind these differences.

Private abortion funds are an essential player in the abortion access landscape and must make efforts to provide culturally responsive, accurate information about abortion in as many language as is feasible based on the linguistic diversity of the surrounding communities.