Posting in the Dark: The Experiences of Reproductive Health Communications Workers in the Post-Dobbs United States

Abstract

This project is about the work of distributing information about where and how to access reproductive healthcare in the post-Roe v. Wade United States. This research utilizes data from 22 qualitative interviews with people whose job it is to put out information to the public about how to access reproductive healthcare. The project outlines how these people's jobs have changed since Roe was overturned, and how challenges they face in getting people information are more complex than people may initially think. This is largely because the technology companies who run major communications platforms, such as Google and Meta, have a lot of control over how people access information on the internet. I argue that the people who are distributing information to the public about where and how to access reproductive healthcare at this time— where laws are constantly changing and being contested, and in which people are being surveilled and punished for trying to access this kind of care— are doing important work. I also argue that the challenges these workers currently face as part of their job are not inevitable, but that in order to solve them, we need to better understand how the internet really operates and who holds power over it, and also work toward creating better tools, rather than accepting imperfect ones.