Surveillance’s Next Target: Abortion

*|MC:SUBJECT|*

Friend,

It was a devastating week in the fight for reproductive access. We know the Supreme Court is poised to turn back the clock fifty years on reproductive rights. But a post-Roe America will be far worse for pregnant people than what came before: police and prosecutors will harness 21st-century technology to pursue medieval abortion laws. Many of the tools meant for healthcare—period tracking apps, fertility apps, and digital medical records—will now hunt down those suspected of abortion.

These tools aren’t just a threat to abortion seekers, but also the countless pregnant people who will be wrongfully targeted. We’ll see Big Tech and big-data platforms harnessed to prosecute those who suffer a natural miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or who were never even pregnant to begin with. Suddenly, every Google search for medically accurate information about abortion care will make someone a potential suspect.

And the threat isn’t confined to conservative states. Information sharing agreements mean that police from anti-abortion states will harness police databases here in New York. And the vast network of fusion centers and federal/local policing partnerships that sprung up since 9/11 are just one election away from becoming an abortion surveillance network.

But no matter how the Supreme Court rules, we can still fight back. We can support local abortion funds and share surveillance self-defense resources. But above all, we must demand that supposedly pro-choice politicians act. In an age when abortion is a crime, we can’t protect pregnant people without standing up to the police. And we can’t stand up to the police without dismantling the surveillance state.

In solidarity,
Sam Van Doran
Development Director

Forward

NewsletterWilliam OwenMay 6, 2022