YouTube creators may be in the position of having to opt out of having "pro-life" advertising on their channel, which may be related to the ongoing conversation on reproducitve rights in the United States. This is somewhat surprising, with the company previously stating they remove “content encouraging others to interfere with democratic processes, such as obstructing or interrupting voting procedures”.

A tweet from Jarvis Johnson, a creator with 1.79M subs on YouTube, highlighted the issue Friday. In the replies to his tweet, YouTube confirmed that to avoid having "political" ads played on his channel, Johnson would have to actively select an option in his Adsense settings, rather than having to opt in to that sort of messaging. This potentially puts some creators in an awkward spot, where they have anti-abortion ads running on their channel without them being aware of it.

Aside from the obvious political position this could put creators in, there is also the possibility that viewers could have negative reactions based on trauma related to the topic. It is equally interesting to note that YouTube have refused to run pro-choice messaging in the past, citing their belief that the issue was "non-family safe".

The massive implications of Roe v Wade

There is currently potential for Roe v Wade, a case from 1973 that states that the Constitution protects a pregnant woman's right to choose to have an abortion without government restriction, to be repealed in the United States. This would lead millions of women to have vastly restricted access to some services, and the potential for murder charges to be brought against people that seek out those services in places where they are considered illegal.

While YouTube has an updated policy for the topic of women’s reproductive health, which requires advertisers to identify themselves and whether or not they actually provide such services, the issue for creators would be simpler if Google and YouTube made political advertising opt-in, rather than vice versa. Inven has reached out to Google and YouTube for comment, and will update the article accordingly should either respond.