By: Charlotte Dong
Ever since Roe v Wade was overturned, abortions have become a felony in many states. Private digital information is now being used against women as proof of committing a “heinous crime”. Cases from Mississippi and Indiana prove this reality.
Privacy experts found a way to see if women are considering or already had an abortion through digital surveillance.
In Mississippi, a woman named Latice Fisher was pregnant with a 35-week-old baby. Unfortunately, the baby was born “lifeless and blue” and was “pronounced dead.”
She gave her phone to the police, and they found in her search history “how to buy Misoprostol Abortion Pill.” Her search history was used as evidence against her in court and the jury charged her with “killing her infant child.”
Fortunately, she was let go of her charges because a new grand jury declared that the test used to establish a live birth was outdated and unreliable.
Emma Roth, a staff attorney at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women said that we rely on technology, especially on our phones daily and law enforcement has used this fact to their advantage.
Unfortunately, women have been punished for having abortions for years. In the United States, countless cases show women accused of having abortions or helping someone else have an abortion.
In Indiana, a woman named Purvi Patel was allegedly the “first woman in the United States to be charged, convicted and sentenced for feticide in ending her own pregnancy.”
The text messages between her friend and her search history were used as evidence of abortion. The text messages highlighted her plan of “taking pills that can induce abortion.” In her search history, she was found reading an article called “National abortion Federation: Abortion after Twelve Weeks.”
Professional detectives also investigated her and found nonprescription mifepristone misoprostol pills from InternationalDrugMart.com
Patel was let go of her punishment early because according to the Indiana Court of Appeals “the states feticide law wasn’t meant to be used to prosecute women for their abortions.”
Both Fisher and Patel’s cases are examples of how someone’s digital data can “pose an enormous risk in a post-Roe world.”
According to McSherry, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, these cases could be an act of racism considering “Fisher is black, and Patel is Indian.”
Ultimately, technology companies and the government need to improve private internet safety especially with “reproductive health data.”
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