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

6/7/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

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.”

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


Missouri – “The right to abortion has been decimated”: Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing

"The right to abortion has been decimated": Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing
Missouri women were subject to needless pelvic exams, part of a cruel tactic from anti-choice legislators

Shira Tarlo
November 17, 2019

After she learned her fetus was affected by a rare, severe abnormality that would result in her pregnancy ending either in stillbirth or a baby whose life necessitated immediate medical intervention, a small business owner from Missouri and her husband decided the "greatest act of love" they could take as parents would be to terminate the pregnancy. In deciding to terminate the pregnancy, the couple didn't expect politics to play a role in their experience — but that's exactly what happened.

"Libby's story is heartbreakingly linked with the political landscape in Missouri — something I never thought I would have to navigate when learning the most devastating news of our life," Jennifer Box said in emotional testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. "This meant I moved at the direction of the government."

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2019/11/17/the-right-to-abortion-has-been-decimated-shocking-stories-characterize-abortion-rights-hearing/


USA – “Failed” abortions, a period-tracking spreadsheet, and the last clinic standing: the controversy in Missouri, explained

“Failed” abortions, a period-tracking spreadsheet, and the last clinic standing: the controversy in Missouri, explained
Hearings will determine if Missouri will be the first state without an abortion clinic.

By Anna North
Oct 31, 2019

At a hearing over an investigation of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic, a state official testified to something that has disturbed reproductive health advocates in the state and beyond: With the help of state medical records, his office had created a spreadsheet tracking patients’ menstrual periods.

The goal, according to the Kansas City Star, was to investigate “failed” abortions, instances in which the patient needed to return a second time to complete the procedure. The idea was apparently that, by gathering data on patients’ periods, state officials would know who was still pregnant after a scheduled abortion.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/10/31/20939890/missouri-abortion-clinic-hearing-periods-roe-wade