Marketing Signs of Medical Abortion in the Internet Media

Abstract

In order to legalise medical abortion (legalised on 1 January 2023), a large-scale propaganda campaign was launched in the Lithuanian online media, with the majority of articles advocating for the legalisation of medical abortion. This article uses a qualitative document analysis method to collect data from one of the most visited online portals delfi.lt. By entering the keywords medical abortion, medical termination of pregnancy, mifepristone in its search engine and specifying the period of publication of the articles from 31 December 2021 to 1 January 2024 (the period before the legalisation of medical abortion), it found 9 articles of which 8 were in favour of medical abortion. The content analysis of the articles identified categories corresponding to the selected marketing advocacy attributes. It was also found that the experts claiming to be obstetrician-gynaecologists made false statements that were not in line with scientific research. Based on the review of the research conducted and the investigation carried out, it can be concluded that the use of inaccurate and misleading terminology in the articles, the omission of the massive and prolonged bleeding and intense pain inherent in medical abortion, is deliberate misleading of consumers, which may affect the woman’s free and informed consent.