How reproductive health information-seeking behaviors changed post-Dobbs: A Wikipedia page views analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, confusion followed regarding the legality of abortion in different states across the country. Recent studies found increased Google searches for abortion-related terms in restricted states after the Dobbs decision was leaked. Since patients and providers use Wikipedia as a predominant medical information source, we hypothesized that changes in reproductive health information-seeking behavior could be better understood by examining Wikipedia article traffic. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to examine trends in Wikipedia usage for abortion and contraception information pre- and post-Dobbs. METHODS Page views of abortion and contraception-related Wikipedia pages were scraped. Temporal changes in page views pre- and post-Dobbs were then analyzed to explore changes in baseline views, differences in views for abortion-related information in restrictive versus non-restrictive states, and viewer trends on contraception-related pages. RESULTS Wikipedia articles related to abortion topics had significantly increased page views following the leaked and final Dobbs decision. Articles about abortion in restrictive states had significantly more page views than articles about abortion in less restrictive states. Finally, pages about common contraceptive methods had significantly increased views post-Dobbs. CONCLUSIONS People sought information on Wikipedia about abortion and contraception at increased rates post-Dobbs. Increased traffic to abortion-related Wikipedia articles correlated to the restrictiveness of states abortion policies. Increased interest in contraception-related pages reflects the increased demand for contraceptives observed post-Dobbs. Our work positions Wikipedia as an important source of reproductive health information and demands increased attention to maintain and improve Wikipedia as a reliable source of health information post-Dobbs.