ELLE: The Weaponisation Of Women’s Social Media Use In Abortion Cases. “She might have been sentenced according to a 19th century law, but prosecutors used 21st century methods to get there. It means we all have a right to be concerned about data privacy: where we’re putting our reproductive information and what could be requested by police or courts.”
The Washington Post: Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my abortion clinic visit.. “When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, privacy advocates, including me, raised an alarm that data from smartphones could be used to help prosecute abortions. Google offered a partial solution: It would proactively delete its trove of location data when people visited ‘particularly personal’ places, including abortion clinics, hospitals and shelters. Nearly a year later, my investigation reveals Google isn’t doing that in any consistent way. And its response to me shows it isn’t taking accountability.”
Indiana University: Internet search trends reflect concerns following Supreme Court health care decisions. “The study, published April 28 in JAMA Health Forum, analyzed internet searches for abortion- and contraception-related terms following the June 24, 2022, ruling by the United States Supreme Court on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Researchers found that searches increased much more in states where reproductive health care access was more likely to be immediately restricted following the decision.”
Washington State Department of Health: Telehealth sexual and reproductive health care services now available in Washington. “The new DOH webpage and tool offers information about 37 clinics in the Washington State Sexual and Reproductive Health Network that provide telehealth appointments. Available telehealth services include birth control refills, pregnancy options counseling, emergency contraceptives, and screenings for sexually transmitted infections.”
Center for Reproductive Rights: Major Reproductive Rights Organizations Launch Nationwide Network to Offer Abortion-Related Legal Defense Services. “Today, six leading reproductive rights organizations announced the Abortion Defense Network, a new program to connect people facing legal threats related to abortion care with trusted attorneys who provide legal advice and representation in civil and criminal proceedings.”
American Journal of Managed Care: YouTube Social Media Influencers Promote Inaccurate Birth Control Content, Study Finds. “Unplanned pregnancies could result from adopting social media influencers’ contraception advice, according to new research, which found the content largely inaccurate and incomplete. Researchers from the University of Delaware discovered that YouTube searches presented information about discontinuing birth control rather than safe sex or contraception. The study was published in Health Communication and highlights how for some young adults, social media has become a main source of sexual health knowledge.”
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia’s largest abortion services provider hit with Google ad ban. “Search giant Google has blocked ads from the country’s largest abortion provider, MSI Australia, for the last two weeks, claiming the ads violated its policies that are based on Australian law. But a version of the ads are likely to be allowed to go live after questions from this masthead, pressure from MSI and a review by Google.”
Duke Health: Top IUD TikTok Videos Often Portray Painful Experiences, Healthcare Mistrust. “Popular TikTok videos related to intrauterine devices (IUDs) tend to depict negative patient experiences related to pain, while some videos conveyed unreliable information about the contraceptive devices.”
Jezebel: Google Isn’t Deleting Users’ Abortion-Related Data, Despite Post-Roe Promise. “Accountable Tech’s research, shared with the Guardian, suggests that if Google doesn’t precisely detect that a user went inside an abortion clinic, and was just in the area of one, their location data isn’t deleted.”
Bloomberg: Google Urged by US Lawmakers to Fix Misleading Abortion Ads. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced a policy in 2019 that requires those advertising alongside search queries related to abortion to be certified based on whether they provide the procedure. In a letter addressed to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, expressed concern that the search giant does not consistently apply those rules, which can lead users to crisis pregnancy centers — non-medical organizations that encourage visitors to keep their pregnancies.”
The Journal (Ireland): Online archive of messages left at Savita mural expected to be accessible by 2023. “DUBLIN CITY LIBRARY and Archive says it hopes the digital archive of messages left at the Savita Halappanavar mural will be completed by early 2023…. Ms Halappanavar died at 17 weeks pregnant in 2012 from sepsis – the young woman had requested an abortion, which was denied on legal grounds by University Hospital Galway. Her death sparked a wave of outcry over Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws.”
Guttmacher Institute: Guttmacher Institute Releases Family Planning Investment Impact Calculator, A New Online Tool for Estimating Health Benefits of Investing in Family Planning in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. “Today, the Guttmacher Institute released its Family Planning Investment Impact Calculator, an interactive, web-based tool designed to estimate the positive impacts of investments in family planning services. For any given investment amount, the calculator estimates the number of modern contraceptive users that would be served, unintended pregnancies and abortions that would be averted, women’s and girls’ lives that would be saved, and cost savings that would accrue for health systems.”
Engadget: Period tracker app Flo launches ‘Anonymous Mode’ for iOS devices. “Flo’s anonymous mode has arrived. The period tracker promised to launch the new mode shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in an effort to assuage privacy-related fears.”
The Verge: Period and pregnancy tracking apps have bad privacy protections, report finds. “Most popular period and pregnancy tracking apps don’t have strong privacy protections, according to a new analysis from researchers at Mozilla. Leaky privacy policies in health apps are always a problem, but issues that fall into this particular category are especially concerning now that abortion is illegal in many places in the United States.”
Washington Post: DeSantis suggests vaccines hurt fertility. A study indicates otherwise — but says catching coronavirus might.. “… there is no evidence that getting vaccinated against the coronavirus makes it harder to conceive, according to a study released Thursday of heterosexual couples trying for pregnancy. DeSantis could not be immediately reached for a comment on his remarks. By contrast, men infected with the coronavirus showed signs of a short-term decline in fertility, according to the research, which was led by an epidemiologist at Boston University and published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Epidemiology. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health.”
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