Hi, I'm Brian Salter, live in New York, and this is Reliable Sources, where we examine

the story behind the story, and we figure out what's reliable.

First, the never-ending argument over abortion access.

Here are two New York Times front pages, side by side, 1973, Supreme Court rules abortion

legal in the first three months, then 2022, the same ruling overturned, 49 years of fights

in prayers and medical advances and societal changes, and I'm left wondering, what will

the front pages say in another 49 years?

Will we be in the same conversation?

Well, one difference between 1973 and today is the real-time data that we have, searches

for the word abortion were especially high this week in metro areas like Madison, Wisconsin,

Kansas City, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, areas where the procedure is now banned.

As we get in Google searches for the question, can I get an abortion or over-indexing in those

states where it is now illegal?

Missouri, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, all the top of the Google Trends data.

And Axios reports that the top queries related to abortion right now include, is it illegal,

abortion banned states, and abortion pill?

Yes, searches for abortion pill are highest right now in red states, including some that

have already banned abortion and others, they're likely to follow.

So this data, it's important, it provides an insight into what people are searching for

in the privacy of their own homes, and it's buttressed by local reporting showing the impacts

of the bans.

It's critical right now to have reporters in states telling these stories.

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