How Big Data Would Curb Abortion Access in a Post-Roe World – By Kaia Hubbard (US News) / June 3, 2022
Lawmaker and privacy groups are warning that the availability and abundance of sensitive information from cellphones threatens to make a post-Roe America much harsher on abortion than before the landmark case became the law of the land.
Abortion rights supporters have since last month rallied on the steps of statehouses, marched on crowded street corners and demonstrated outside of the Supreme Court itself after a leaked draft opinion suggested that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. In their opposition, they’ve touted a familiar refrain: “We will not go back.”
Although the Supreme Court in the coming weeks is widely expected to return abortion to the states, which dictated its accessibility before Roe was decided in 1973, the national landscape of abortion access and enforcement likely won’t return to where it was before the landmark decision. Some experts say that, due to technological advances, accessing abortion in places where it’s banned – although likely more medically safe than pre-Roe – will spell far broader legal consequences in a post-Roe world.
Personal data is paving a new frontier for the enforcement of abortion laws, surveillance experts are warning. Whether by monitoring search history and texts, tracking location data or using period-tracking apps that some women use to monitor their menstrual cycles, an abundance of information taken from a small device in one’s pocket makes what advocates call a personal health care decision not-so private and likely poses a much greater ability to enforce the coming abortion bans in many states.
