Abortion Surveillance Post-Roe
Overview
On June 24th, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark court case that granted the federal right to abortion in the United States. Repealing half a century of abortion rights doesn’t thrust Americans back in 1973, but a much darker age with the support of new technology. As surveillance technology expands in the United States, police, prosecutors, and private anti-abortion litigants will weaponize existing American surveillance infrastructure to target pregnant people and use their health data against them in a court of law.
S.T.O.P., since the overturning of Roe, has geared its resources toward fighting the surveillance state’s threats to abortion rights and advocacy. A post-Roe society raises questions about healthcare data, travel data, police surveillance, and other privacy issues. It is essential to ensure pregnant people have access to the resources and privacy they need to obtain an abortion.
Read our Pregnancy Panoptican report to learn more about abortion surveillance after Roe.
Our Work
Resources
There are countless organizations dedicated to providing safe, accessible abortions in the United States. Below is a non-exhaustive list of organizations that need donations, volunteers, and/or provide more educational resources on abortion access and its impacts around the United States:
National Advocates for Pregnant Women: https://www.nationaladvocatesforpregnantwomen.org/
New York Abortion Access Fund: https://www.nyaaf.org/
If When How: https://www.ifwhenhow.org/
Indigenous Women Rising: https://www.iwrising.org/
National Network of Abortion Funds: https://abortionfunds.org/
National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda: https://blackrj.org/
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice: https://www.latinainstitute.org/
Mariposa Fund: https://mariposafund.org/
Digital Defense Fund: https://digitaldefensefund.org/
Op-Eds
Media
6/3/22 Wired Magazine: The Supreme Court Is Building Its Own Surveillance State
7/25/222 Fast Company: Abortion surveillance tech could create an American refugee crisis
8/4/22 Slate Magazine: The New Way Police Could Use Your Google Searches Against You
8/12/22 Wired Magazine: Facebook's Message Encryption Was Built to Fail
6/22/22 National Journal: Dems scramble to protect health data
6/27/22 The Quint: 'Delete Them, Now': Abortion Ruling Makes US Women Wary of Period Tracking Apps
6/27/22 The Huffington Post: Why People Are Deleting Period Tracker Apps, And How To Do It Right
6/28/22 Marketplace: Tech companies silent on role of consumer data in enforcing state abortion bans
6/28/22 Fast Company: 5 ways to protect your personal data in a post-Roe world
6/29/22 Axios: The future of privacy rights in a post-Roe world
6/29/22 Grid: Social media after Roe: How much will Facebook and Instagram limit abortion content?
6/30/22 San Francisco Chronicle: Search history Google and abortions
7/1/22 The Huffington Post: How To Safely Track Your Period Now That Roe v. Wade Is Overturned
7/1/22 The Washington Post: Okay, Google: To protect women, collect less data about everyone
7/5/22 Health: Should You Delete Your Period-Tracking App to Protect Your Privacy?
7/8/22 THE HEALTHTECH TIMES: PERIOD, FERTILITY APPS COULD BE WEAPONIZED IN POST-ROE WORLD
7/16/22 CNN: Your phone could be used against you in an abortion case
7/18/22 Politico: ‘A uniquely dangerous tool’: How Google's data can help states track abortions
7/21/22 Alaraby: 'Silence will only hurt us': After Roe, American Muslims know what comes next
9/8/22 The Guardian: The risks of student surveillance amid abortion bans and LGBTQ restrictions
9/15/22 Healthy Woman: Are Health Apps Putting Your Privacy at Risk?
10/7/22 Dismanting Justice: The Tools and Tactics of Reproductive Surveillance
11/6/22 Spectrum Local News: Geofence warrants are 'slippery slope' in Texas
11/29/2022 The Guardian: Googling abortion? Your details aren’t as private as you think