Picture of woman holding abortion rights sign has been edited

A widely-shared picture showing a woman and a young girl holding a sign that says “I want my daughter to have the right to abortion that I didn’t have” has been edited.

Many of the posts infer that the young girl is the woman’s daughter and claim the mother is “subtly” saying she doesn’t love her child because she wanted to have an abortion. 

The picture has been shared on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). But it has been altered to change the text on the sign.

Using Google Lens, Full Fact found an earlier version of the image posted in March 2023, which has a different, handwritten, sign, which says: “Soy mamá de la niña que jamás vas a tocar” which translates to “I am the mother of the girl you will never touch”. 

The article (translated using Google Translate) says the photograph was taken on 8 March 2023 (which is also International Women’s Day) during a feminist march in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Mexico has seen large demonstrations around International Women’s Day in recent years to demand justice for the victims of gender-based violence and femicide. 

Examples of the image edited to include the fake text referencing abortion in Spanish circulated on social media before the English version. 

Altered and manipulated videos and images can cause misinformation to spread widely online. We have fact checked several altered signs like this before, including a road sign in Yorkshire which appeared to have Arabic translations and one in Oxford which said the city was being divided into ‘districts’.

It’s important to consider whether something is genuine before sharing. Our guides to spotting misleading images can help you to do this.