The 19th: Democrats push to protect the data privacy of people seeking abortions

Democrats at the federal and state levels are pushing to pass bills protecting sensitive reproductive health data before Republicans take control of key legislative chambers. 

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts plans on Tuesday to reintroduce legislation that would put guardrails on the largely unregulated industry buying and selling consumer data, her office shared first with The 19th. The bill, the Health and Location Data Protection Act, would ban data brokers — an estimated $200 billion industry — from selling or transferring consumers’ health and location data.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights protections in 2022, putting a renewed focus on data privacy. Reproductive rights advocates worry about ways in which the privacy and safety of abortion patients could be at risk in states where the procedure is banned. They have raised concerns about apps that track menstrual cycles and family planning, as well as location data that can be used to track patients’ visits to abortion clinics. 

…

Read the full story here.

• Print
• Email
• Tweet