Sneaky ways cops could access data to widely prosecute abortions in the US
It's not clear yet what role tech companies will play in helping police access data to prosecute abortions in post-Roe America, but it has already become apparent that law enforcement is willing to be sneaky when seeking data.
Cops revealed one potential tactic they could use back in June, when Meta faced scrutiny from reproductive rights activists for complying with a search warrant request from police in Madison County, Nebraska. The Nebraska cops told Meta they were investigating a crime under the state’s “Prohibited Acts with Skeletal Remains.”
But what they were actually investigating was a case involving a woman, Jessica Burgess, who was suspected of aiding her 17-year-old daughter, Celeste Burgess, in procuring an unlawful abortion in the state at 23 weeks. The mother and daughter previously told police that Celeste miscarried, but—in part because of data Meta supplied—the mother is now being prosecuted for unlawfully aiding her daughter in an abortion. Celeste is being prosecuted as an adult for other crimes.
Meta seemed blindsided by criticism over its decision to comply with these Nebraska warrants. At the time, a Meta spokesperson told Ars that “nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision” overturning Roe v. Wade, “mentioned abortion."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/sneaky-ways-cops-could-access-data-to-widely-prosecute-abortions-in-the-us/
A snippet of this article does not do it justice... I recommend you go read it yourself. It details the ways cops are accessing data to prosecute women for abortions... Not just how they 'could' but how they are, even before Roe was overturned. The gusto with which repugs are going after women is really fucking creepy and just plain wrong. This has to be stopped.
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