US Anti-Abortion Activists Intensify Their Recruitment Efforts on TikTok

TLDR

• Anti-abortion activists in the US expanded their activities targeting abortion clinics after the US Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Since then, medical providers and reproductive rights advocates have faced reported increases in threats and harassment.

• Open Measures found that anti-abortion activists and organizations have increased their messaging efforts on TikTok in recent years, frequently featuring material from demonstrations outside of abortion clinics. We also found anti-abortion accounts using popular topical hashtags to insert themselves into broader discussions about reproductive care on the platform.

• Comparatively, conversation about abortion declined after the 2024 presidential election across text-based and video-based alternative platforms with significant conservative communities.

Background

In 2022, the US Supreme Court effectively repealed the constitutional right to abortion.¹ The decision emboldened anti-abortion extremists, driving a surge in violent and disruptive incidents targeting reproductive health providers and entities associated with abortion care.²

In January 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen people who had been charged with breaking into abortion clinics or obstructing access to facilities under President Joe Biden’s administration. The Trump Administration subsequently dropped several investigations into threats against abortion clinics and circulated a memo instructing federal prosecutors not to pursue potential violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (“FACE Act”) related to abortion, describing past investigations as “weaponization” of law enforcement.³

Anti-abortion activists have since intensified their calls to protest abortion clinics, calling on movement supporters to organize mass protests at certain reproductive health clinics across the country.⁴ In light of these increased threats against abortion providers, Open Measures sought to better understand the social media strategies anti-abortion movements are using to organize and recruit on social media in 2026.

Methodology

After a cursory overview, our researchers found that while some prominent accounts on right-leaning alt-platforms are contributing to broader online discourse about abortion,⁵ many anti-abortion activist groups have been slow to establish themselves on these platforms. Instead, these groups appear to focus the bulk of their efforts on mainstream platforms (like TikTok).⁶

To contextualize these trends, our researchers took the two-pronged approach of examining anti-abortion discourse on TikTok and contextualizing those findings against a broader analysis of similar discourse on alt-platforms. To gather relevant content, our researchers created crawl requests for more than 60 anti-abortion accounts and 19 anti-abortion hashtags commonly used on TikTok. We also submitted crawl requests for dozens of abortion-related terms across all platforms we monitor.

From these crawled sources, our researchers analyzed posts made since June 24, 2022 – the day the US Supreme Court reversed its long-held position on the right to abortion.

Anti-Abortion Discourse Trends on TikTok

In the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, the monthly volume of TikTok posts with at least one of our 19 anti-abortion hashtags increased to above-average levels, a trend that has sustained.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 abortion decision and as of print, TikTok users included one of the 19 anti-abortion hashtags included in our search string across more than 7,500 posts we identified – more than half of which were shared after November 2024.

Caption: A Timeline chart shows the number of TikTok posts per month our researchers identified that included at least one of 19 anti-abortion hashtags. The chart shows that the use of anti-abortion hashtags increased in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election and was sustained at heightened levels thereafter.

With our platform’s Activity tool, researchers identified 15 accounts responsible for the greatest number of posts that included these hashtags since June 2022. The account that used these hashtags most often during our analysis period belonged to a feminist influencer, Amanda Tietz (@pottymouthpollyanna), whose posts expressed pro-choice beliefs.

The other 14 accounts that used anti-abortion hashtags the most belonged to conservative influencers and activist groups. The top five among those were:

• Lauren Elise (@lauren.elise.official), a conservative influencer who has participated in anti-abortion protests in Washington, DC

• Live Action (@liveactionorg), an anti-abortion activist group that seeks to outlaw abortion and defund abortion providers

• And Then There Were None (@attwnministry), an anti-abortion organization that targets its messaging at abortion clinic staffers

• Lydia Taylor Davis (@lydiataylordavis_), spokesperson and social media coordinator at the anti-abortion activist group Students for Life

• Abolitionists Rising (@abolitionistsrising), an anti-abortion organization that engages in street activism and uses graphic imagery in their materials

Caption: Activity graph showing the 15 TikTok accounts that shared the greatest number of posts with at least one of 19 anti-abortion hashtags since June 2022. A pro-choice feminist account topped the chart, followed by a mix of anti-abortion influencers and activist organizations.

Several of these anti-abortion accounts tagged their content with broader abortion-related hashtags, likely as an attempt to reach broader audiences. We did a second search across the same analysis period for six of these broader hashtags, which yielded significantly more results than the 19 explicitly ideological hashtags. As in our initial analysis, the broader results also showed a surge of activity in the months ahead of the 2024 US presidential election with higher levels of activity sustained thereafter.

Caption: A Timeline chart shows the number of TikTok posts per month our researchers identified that included at least one of six topical hashtags related to abortion since June 2022. The chart shows that usage of these hashtags spiked ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, with higher-than-average activity levels sustained thereafter.

Our researchers also identified the 15 accounts that uploaded the greatest number of posts with at least one of six abortion-related hashtags that had a broader, less-ideological focus. Of these accounts, four were anti-abortion influencers or activist organizations; the others were a mix of pro-choice accounts and news organizations.

Caption: An Activity chart showing the 15 TikTok accounts that shared the highest number of posts that included one of six topical hashtags related to abortion since June 2022. Four of the accounts identified belong to anti-abortion influencers or activist organizations.

Together, these findings show that the general conversation about abortion on TikTok spiked ahead of the election and has remained elevated since. More pointedly, the findings also show that anti-abortion activists have increased their efforts to spread their beliefs on TikTok in recent years.

Turning Protests at Abortion Clinics into TikTok Content

In the course of our analysis, we did not encounter TikTok videos from anti-abortion activists that explicitly encouraged or threatened violence against abortion providers. However, our researchers did observe a large number of videos promoting (or actually attending) protests against clinics and making inflammatory claims about nearby patients seeking care, facility staff members, and volunteer clinic escorts.

Many of the videos we identified featured one or more of the following:

• Encouragement to participate in anti-abortion activism against abortion clinics with protest strategies like picketing. In one case, an anti-abortion group announced its intention to “barricade” the doors of an abortion clinic.

• Footage of protests and other activist activities targeting abortion clinics, often framed as victories for the movement. Some accounts discussed past experiences of protesting that had allegedly dissuaded others from seeking or obtaining abortions, framing these as successful “rescue” attempts.

• Videos highlighting arguments or altercations between anti-abortion activists and their opponents at events. Some accounts shared videos featuring on-camera personalities who appeared to be attending protest events for the explicit purpose of producing confrontational content.

• Content depicting apparent abortion clinic staffers and volunteer clinic escorts and levying extreme claims against them. For example, one video, depicting a staffer moving medical containers outside of a clinic, had overlaid text suggesting the containers were full of mutilated infants.

TikTok videos valorizing protests and hostile behaviors toward abortion clinics and staffers could serve to inspire others toward similar actions, inviting further online outrage cycles and eliciting greater threats and harassment against providers.

While researching protest content, our researchers also encountered a competing niche ecosystem of accounts run by pro-choice activists and clinic escorts, who have used TikTok to document anti-abortion protesters at clinics.

Talk of Abortion on Alt-Platforms Quieted in Recent Years

Our researchers were surprised to see that users of alt-platforms seemed to have posted about abortion in volumes that had gradually decreased since the Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Viewed over time, the monthly number of posts that included any mention of the word “abortion” on six text-based alternative platforms with large conservative communities declined after the 2024 presidential election.

Caption: A Timeline chart shows the volume of monthly posts containing the word “abortion” across six text-based alternative platforms with notable conservative communities since June 24, 2022. Discussion of abortion on these platforms declined after the 2024 presidential election.

The same trend was seen on video-based alternative platforms: Users on Bitchute, LBRY, and Rumble shared less content related to abortion after the 2024 presidential election.

Caption: A Timeline chart showing the volume of monthly posts containing the word “abortion” across six video-based alternative platforms with notable conservative communities since June 24, 2022. Discussion of abortion on these platforms declined after the 2024 presidential election.

Conclusion

Open Measures’ analysis found that anti-abortion activists have become more invested in spreading their ideology on TikTok in recent years, in the apparent hope of reaching younger audiences and recruiting them into anti-abortion activism. Some accounts and organizations used TikTok to promote protests and targeted actions against abortion providers.

Abortion clinics and providers have faced increased threats and harassment since the US Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. As anti-abortion activists vow to increase their activities against healthcare providers and embolden others to do the same, Open Measures will continue to track and report on these trends in the interest of keeping providers offering legal reproductive health services safe and informed.