Ron Wyden told Gizmodo Tuesday that a decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade would cause a digital privacy crisis, one that could see authorities turn personal data into a tool for hunting down women seeking abortions.
If the Supreme Court overturns the abortion law, every digital record, from web searches to phone records and app data, will be used to control women's bodies.
There are precedents for the concerns. Four years ago, a Mississippi woman was charged with second degree murder after a prosecutor used her online searches for abortion pills to imply a motive. The charge against the woman was dropped after a wave of activist pressure.
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An Indiana woman was sentenced to decades in prison after being found guilty of feticide and child neglect. Prosecutors used phone messages to convince a jury that the woman had purchased abortion drugs online, even though police were unable to show she bought the drugs. An Indiana appeals court overturned the feticide charge in 2016 because the state's law did not apply to self- abortion.
“Data brokers are becoming a threat to every pregnant person’s ability to access health care.”The simple act of searching could cause a woman to be harassed and attacked.
Similar monitoring continues. On Tuesday, a location data firm was giving clients information about people who have visited clinics that provide abortions, according to a report. The location data came from ordinary apps installed on users' phones. Information is often collected without knowledge.
Texas passed a law last year that effectively banned most abortions in the state. If anyone is found guilty of aiding in an abortion after six weeks, they will be forced to pay a $10,000 judgement. Rape or incest are not exceptions for pregnancies. On Tuesday, Oklahoma's governor signed a similar one.
Republicans in Missouri are working to pass a law that would ban residents from seeking out-of-state abortions and also provide gender-affirming care.
Police and prosecutors have a wide range of tools at their disposal when it comes to gathering digital evidence on women with an interest in abortion. Most states don't have laws against purchasing data from private companies once a user naively consents to the collection. Police can use subpoenas to force service providers to turn over internet traffic logs.
Law enforcement can use facial recognition and other methods to identify people, and could turn on medical facilities that provide reproductive care.
The ability of pregnant people to access health care is at risk due to the rampant collection and sale of American data.
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