Post-Roe v. Wade: Data privacy and other rights
Tags: Digital rights. Disability. Health. Public policy.The landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, was overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday. Though the court’s decision will impact everyone, disabled people, especially those with multiple marginalized identities, will be disproportionately impacted for a number of reasons, such as health care inequities, sexual violence, poverty and the loss of autonomy that they have historically experienced.
Unmooring abortion from individual liberty rights also jeopardizes any number of rights similarly understood to have a home in the 14th Amendment, the dissent [by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan] warns. “The Constitution will, today’s majority holds, provide no shield, despite its guarantees of liberty and equality for all,” they wrote. “And no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work.”
It’s not uncommon for apps to cooperate with law enforcement during criminal investigations – oftentimes around child exploitative imagery in particular. If abortion is criminalized, experts say period-tracking data could become a target for investigators.