On Feb. 17, Michele Goodwin, Renee Bracey Sherman and Kelly Baden will discuss how disinformation is influencing reproductive health legislation, courts and care.
As false claims and junk science increasingly distort public understanding of reproductive health, leading experts are coming together to confront the growing threat mis- and disinformation pose to access, policy and democracy itself.
On Feb. 17, the Guttmacher Institute, Ms. magazine and Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law will co-host a virtual webinar examining how misinformation is reshaping debates around contraception, abortion and sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States.
The webinar—Disrupting Mis- and Disinformation: Foregrounding Facts on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Against the Threat of Junk Science—will feature a discussion moderated by reproductive justice activist and author Renee Bracey Sherman (Liberating Abortion), with panelists Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, and Michele Goodwin, constitutional law and global health policy scholar, author of Policing the Womb, and host of On the Issues with Michele Goodwin at Ms. Studios.
Panelists will explore how distorted narratives and pseudoscience are increasingly influencing legislative debates, judicial outcomes and public opinion—often with direct consequences for people’s ability to access essential reproductive healthcare. From abortion bans rooted in debunked medical claims, to restrictions on contraception fueled by ideological misinformation, false narratives are playing an outsized role in shaping policy.
Speakers will also examine how these campaigns undermine evidence-based governance, erode trust in scientific institutions and destabilize democratic decision-making—while placing providers, policymakers and the public in an increasingly hostile information environment.
The conversation aims to equip journalists, advocates, policymakers and the broader public with tools to recognize and counter reproductive health misinformation, while highlighting the urgent need for coordinated strategies to defend science-backed care and bodily autonomy.
The webinar will take place on Feb. 17, 2026, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. ET, and will be hosted via Zoom. Registration is open to the public. RSVP here, or click the image below.
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