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Online Data, Medical Records Can Be Used to Put Women in Jail Under New Abortion Laws

Online Data, Medical Records Can Be Used to Put Women in Jail Under New Abortion Laws

From USA Today : Period tracking apps, tele-health appointments, mail-in pharmacy requests and other data could be used as evidence in criminal cases for those involved in abortions, experts said.

States that have already passed laws redefining "personhood" to include an unborn child may mean people who seek out abortions or anyone helping them could face charges of feticide or aggravated assault, among other charges.

If the Supreme Court rules to overturn Roe v. Wade this month, lawmakers and law enforcement may have varied means to go after women and health care providers who participate in abortions in large part because of technology that didn't exist before the 1973 landmark ruling protecting abortion rights.

That means period tracking apps, tele-health appointments, mail-in pharmacy requests and other online medical records and data could be used as evidence in criminal cases, experts said.

At least 26 states are expected to move quickly to ban abortion if the court's conservative majority strikes down federally-protected abortion rights. 

Among them are 13 – including Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Idaho, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming – that have "trigger laws" that would take effect automatically or through a quick state action if Roe no longer applies….

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers concluded in a report in August that anti-abortion measures will lead to "rampant criminalization through regulatory enforcement and to mass incarceration on an unprecedented scale," especially if Roe is overturned.

Because some states have already passed laws redefining "personhood" to include an unborn child, it's possible people who seek out abortions or anyone who helps them could face charges of feticide or aggravated assault, the report said.

Most of the rhetoric around penalizing illegal abortions has targeted healthcare workers who help people obtain abortions rather than pregnant women, said Brietta Clark, a health law and reproductive justice professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. 

But she said that unless laws clearly state women won't be prosecuted for the outcomes of their pregnancy, they are still at risk.

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