State governments looking to protect health-related data as it’s used in abortion battle

State governments across the U.S. are adopting or considering laws that would block the sale of personal health data or information about who visits sensitive sites such as sexual health facilities

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press
February 16, 2024

Some state governments and federal regulators were already moving to keep individuals' reproductive health information private when a U.S. senator’s report last week offered a new jolt, describing how cellphone location data was used to send millions of anti-abortion ads to people who visited Planned Parenthood offices.

Federal law bars medical providers from sharing health data without a patient’s consent but doesn’t prevent digital tech companies from tracking menstrual cycles or an individual’s location and selling it to data brokers. Legislation for federal bans have never gained momentum, largely because of opposition from the tech industry.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/state-governments-protect-health-related-data-abortion-battle-107313291

A Trump-Stacked Court Hopes to Limit Access to the Abortion Pill. The Final Decision Now Lies With SCOTUS.

8/17/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals released a decision on Wednesday, Aug. 16, that dismissed a challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone, but would sharply restrict access to medication abortion nationwide and eliminate telemedicine abortion. The decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA remains on hold until final review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“While the court has acknowledged that mifepristone—both brand and generic versions—can stay on the market, they are insisting we should roll back the clock to 2000 and put the medication under lock and key,” said Kirsten Moore, director of Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project (EMAA Project). “The extremist judges ignored the FDA, our basic rights, and more than 20 years of scientific evidence showing mifepristone is safe and effective, rolling back decades of advancement in the standard of care. This is a dangerous precedent for FDA’s scientific review authority.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/17/abortion-pills-fifth-circuit-mifepristone/

USA – ‘Uterus surveillance’: The scramble to keep abortion data from prying eyes

Telemedicine groups are looking to bolster privacy protections ahead of Roe decision.

By BEN LEONARD
05/20/2022

Telemedicine abortion groups, fearful of digital surveillance from states curbing access in a potential post-Roe nation, are shoring up privacy defenses and urging people seeking abortions to take steps to protect their data.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, telehealth would be crucial to people seeking abortion care, particularly those who live in states that would ban the procedure. Many people are expected to drive across state lines for virtual visits from their cars or have abortion pills mailed to a state where they are allowed, experts said — moves that could create legal risks.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/20/uterus-surveillance-the-scramble-to-keep-abortion-data-from-prying-eyes-00033775