Enforcing Criminal Abortion Bans Post-Roe: 'A Massive Escalation of Surveillance'

Enforcing Criminal Abortion Bans Post-Roe: ‘A Massive Escalation of Surveillance’
6/7/2022 by Carrie N. Baker



Police arrest an abortion rights activist on Monday, June 6, 2022. (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

New York-based privacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) released a chilling report last month detailing the digital surveillance threats facing pregnant women who seek abortion information and services, and how these threats could escalate dramatically if the Supreme Court repeals abortion rights and states criminalize abortion. “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,” according to the report, titled “Pregnancy Panopticon: Abortion Surveillance After Roe.” “This isn’t speculation—it’s already happening.” The report explains how anti-abortion governments and private entities are already using cutting-edge digital technologies to surveil women’s search history, location data, messages, online purchases and social media activities by using geofencing, keyword warrants, big data and more. “Every aspect of pregnant people’s digital lives will be put under the microscope, examined for any hints that they sought (successfully or otherwise) to end their pregnancy,” states the report.

Modern surveillance tools will help states to enforce criminal abortion bans on a scale that was technically impossible before Roe, posing an unprecedented threat to pregnant women and those helping them access care. “It will be truly dystopian when police can use modern surveillance to enforce these backwards abortion bans,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of S.T.O.P, which litigates and advocates for privacy and fights excessive local and state-level surveillance. “The Supreme Court may be turning back the clock 50 years on civil rights, but anti-abortion policing will bring us an even darker future,” Cahn continued. “In 1973, police couldn’t use the surveillance tools that have become commonplace today. Suddenly, every phone, laptop, and smart device will become a potential policing tool, with pregnant people’s location data and search histories mined for evidence. Even when abortion bans stop at the state line, the surveillance will be national, giving anti-abortion police a way to track abortion care coast to coast. Even if the laws are the same as pre-Roe, the way they’re enforced will be starkly different.”


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Geofence warrants, for example, enable police to force reproductive healthcare providers to expand medical surveillance of pregnant women, particularly those suffering miscarriages. To do this, police will use geofence warrants, forcing Google and other companies to identify everyone who comes into a designated area—such as an abortion clinic—during a designated time.
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The report explains how police can use geofencing and digital keyword warrants to “cast digital dragnets” and identify people seeking abortion information online. They also note that electronic payment records and retail sales data are potent sources for abortion surveillance. Currently only one state—Massachusetts—bans geofencing near abortion clinics. Digital keyword warrants allow police to “cast digital dragnets” in order to identify people seeking abortion information online. Police are already using mass extraction technology to download all data on a user’s phone into a searchable file.

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Abortion Seekers

Finally, the report details steps people can take to minimize their digital footprint when searching online for abortion information and healthcare, such as using a virtual private network and paying for services in cash. However, the authors note that no steps can fully protect the public from anticipated abortion surveillance. The Repro Legal Helpline provides free and confidential legal advice that can help people better understand the laws and legal risk they may face in seeking abortion information online and self-managing abortion. Contact them online or call 844-868-2812.

https://msmagazine.com/2022/06/07/police-abortion-bans-roe-v-wade-surveillance/