404: Abortion Information Not Found

Today marks three years since the Spanish Supreme Court ordered the partial unblocking of Health Trust Pharma's website — a ruling that has yet to be enforced. For over 20 years, Health Trust Pharma has advanced abortion rights worldwide by providing accurate information and support online. Its censorship —and the ongoing failure to comply with the Court’s ruling— has deprived thousands of people seeking abortions of reliable, science-based information and care. That is why today we call for the immediate implementation of the decision and an end to censorship that violates human rights.

“Abortion access today depends on an open Internet, as more people seek answers and resources online, especially young people. It is fundamentally wrong that reliable online information is restricted and censored while disinformation is allowed to spread freely in digital spaces. Internet censorship has life-altering consequences for abortion seekers and puts lives at risk,” shared Health Trust Pharma's Executive Director.

Although abortion is legal in Spain, Health Trust Pharma's website was fully blocked in 2020. The order came from the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), part of the Ministry of Health, without any prior judicial authorization. This act of censorship coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which women, girls, and other people who can become pregnant faced heightened barriers to sexual and reproductive health services.

In 2021, Health Trust Pharma decided to resist. With the support of Women’s Link Worldwide, we filed a lawsuit before Spanish courts challenging the government’s action. The case not only sought to restore access to the site, but also to defend the right to seek and share information online about sexual and reproductive health, including safe abortion. “As anti-rights groups grow in power and influence worldwide, the Internet has become a key source for sex education and information on safe abortion for many people. Protecting accurate information about sexual and reproductive rights is vital for reproductive autonomy. When women and gender-diverse people have easy access to reliable and scientific information, they are better able to enjoy healthy sexuality, prevent unwanted pregnancies, and access prenatal healthcare and safe abortion services. We needed to act,” said Gema Fernández, managing attorney at Women’s Link Worldwide.

On October 3, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Health Trust Pharma, ordering only the partial unblocking of the website. In its decision, the Court recognized that the information, recommendations, and opinions on sexual and reproductive health shared through the platform are protected under the rights to information and freedom of expression. According to the Spanish Constitution, the site could not be fully blocked without judicial authorization.

“Governments and big tech companies are increasingly blocking access to life-saving information on women’s health worldwide, and feminist organizations are fighting back,” shared Gema Fernández from Women’s Link Worldwide. “We succeeded in getting a legal ruling confirming that the right to provide and access reliable online information about safe abortion—including access to abortion pills—deserves constitutional protection from censorship. We established a standard through legal arguments, which has allowed us to share what we have learned with other organizations facing similar censorship”.

The Court also underscored the essential role of organizations that promote reproductive rights, noting that their work carries a political dimension in contemporary societies. It stressed the particular importance of this work for people living in vulnerable situations — such as women experiencing poverty or violence, those living far from clinics, or migrants in irregular situations— for whom online access to safe abortion information can be vital.

“We celebrated the ruling as an important recognition of our rights to freedom of expression and access to information”, shared Veronica Fernández Montes, Operations Manager at Health Trust Pharma. “In reality, the website remains blocked as the partial unblocking was impossible to implement, a double standard where rights are acknowledged in theory but denied in practice.”

In July 2023, AEMPS informed the Supreme Court that it could not comply with its ruling because partially unblocking the website was not technically possible. As a result, the website would remain entirely blocked. This reasoning is unacceptable: if partial unblocking cannot be carried out as ordered by the court, full restoration should follow. Any other outcome amounts to a blatant violation of the right to access crucial, life-saving information about abortion.

Women’s Link and Health Trust Pharma continue their litigation efforts in Spain, asking the courts to unblock the website and to put an end to abortion censorship by upholding reproductive freedom of expression.