Abortion, Every Day (1.18.24)

Google isn't deleting abortion patients' location data

Click to skip ahead in the newsletter: In Criminalizing Care, Google promised to stop holding onto abortion-related location data—they didn’t. Lots going on with Missouri’s New Ballot Measure Push. In the States, some more ballot measure news out of Virginia, Montana and more. Finally, In the Nation, a look at the Biden-Harris push on abortion rights.

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First and foremost: thank you to everyone for the amazing support yesterday. I’m still looking through all your comments, messages and emails—and I’m truly overwhelmed and touched. This community’s support has been beyond anything I ever expected, and I’m so incredibly grateful. If you missed the Senate Democrats’ briefing on abortion rights, you can watch the full event here, or watch my remarks below. (I’m going to do a short column soon with some take-away thoughts from the event, but—to be completely honest—I need a bit of rest first!)

Criminalizing Care

Please tell me why Google is still not deleting user location data for abortion clinic visits? In late 2022, The Guardian reported that Google hadn’t kept its promise to stop saving location data for anyone visiting abortion clinics. A study found that despite the company’s vow after Roe was overturned, Google was saving all of their map data along with abortion-related web searches. All of that information could be used to power abortion-related prosecutions.

After that 2022 report, Google once again promised to do better. But according to The Guardian, new data shows that the tech giant has only made nominal changes:

“Accountable Tech found that the company still wasn’t deleting location history in all cases as promised, though Google’s rate of retention improved slightly. The rate of retention of location information decreased from 60% of tested cases, a measurement taken five months after Google’s pledge, to 50% of tested cases in the most recent experiment.”

After running tests on Google in a handful of states (including Texas, North Carolina and New York), researchers found that abortion patients’ location data might still be retained “with the same odds as a coin flip.” The study also reports that “as we’ve seen through the experiments, Google still retains location search query data, and likely other incriminating data as well—from email to Google search data.”

You should read the whole report from The Guardian, but it’s incredibly damning. A Google representative rejected the study’s findings, by the way, saying that any claims that they weren’t deleting personal location data “are patently false or misguided.”

Bloomberg Law reports that Accountable Tech and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over the privacy breaches.

Missouri’s Ballot Measure Push

If you’re a regular reader, you know that there’s been quite a lot happening in Missouri around abortion rights ballot measures. In addition to Republicans’ absolutely bonkers attacks on democracy to stop any measure from moving forward, there’s also been disagreement among pro-choice groups over ‘viability’ standards, and a Republican strategist who filed a handful of what she’s calling “compromise” measures. (Background on Republican attacks here, background on pro-choice disagreement & the GOP strategist here.)

Today, though, major abortion rights organizations in Missouri have coalesced around one particular amendment. After filing eleven different versions of a pro-choice measure, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom has officially started collecting signatures for one of them, which you can read here.

The measure protects abortion rights until ‘viability’, which the group defines as the point in pregnancy that “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside of the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures,” based on the “good faith judgement” of a health care professional.

However, if a health care professional determines that that the pregnant person’s life, physical health or mental health is at risk, the government can’t intervene regardless of ‘viability’.

You all know what I think about ‘viability’ standards—but I also have no idea what it’s like to do this very difficult work on the ground in a state like Missouri, which has a total abortion ban.

Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said the the amendment meets voters in the state where they’re at:

“Many members of our coalition are out talking about abortion with Missourians every day, and we know that Missourians often have complex or nuanced positions on abortion, but there is one thing that they are aligned in, and it’s that they want to end the abortion ban…we are confident this is our best path forward.”

Pamela Merritt, the Missouri-based Executive Director of Medical Students for Choice, however, tells the Associated Press that she’s “deeply concerned by the trend of state coalitions organizing to enshrine restrictions on abortion access into state constitutions.” She said ‘viability’ standards trump the rights of some patients, “while sacrificing abortion access for people most impacted by abortion bans.” (Full disclosure: I worked with Merritt at Feministing back in the day.)

I also worry about the political strategy here: The reason so many abortion rights groups propose ballot measures with ‘viability’ language is because they’re worried about conservative attacks claiming they support abortion “up until birth.” But we already know—from the way things went in Ohio, for example—that these groups will make that claim regardless of what the amendment says. They’ll lie, or they’ll nitpick the language of the measure to back up their bullshit.

In fact, The New York Times reports that Missouri Stands with Women—a new anti-abortion group that’s launched in response to the ballot measure—said this week that they’re working to ensure that “these out-of-state extremists are not allowed to tear the fabric of our constitution by placing unregulated, taxpayer-funded abortions up to the moment of birth.” (Emphasis mine.)

Another thing: because Missouri’s proposed amendment allows for abortions after ‘viability’ if a doctor deems it necessary to protect a patient’s mental health, we know exactly what conservatives’ attack will be: They’ll say the measure will allow women to get abortions at any point in pregnancy if they have a little anxiety or a “bad day.” I can imagine the talking points already.

It’s also perfect fodder for right-wing media and groups that dismiss mental health issues as ‘wokeism’. In some ways, I wonder if the mental health exemption gives anti-abortion groups more ammunition than if there was no ‘viability’ standard at all.

Here’s the good news, though: As The Kansas City Start reports, abortion rights are popular in Missouri. A 2022 poll showed that the majority of voters supported legal abortion and opposed the state’s abortion ban. And we know that any time abortion is put directly to voters, abortion wins.

The groups behind the effort are also serious powerhouses. Missourians for Constitutional Freedom includes the ACLU of Missouri, Abortion Action Missouri, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes and Advocates of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. From Tori Schafer of the ACLU of Missouri:

“Passing this amendment will end our state’s abortion ban and make sure Missourians and their families can once again make the decisions that are best for them. We believe that decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control and miscarriage care, are personal and private. And that they should be left up to patients and their families.”

In order to get the amendment in front of voters, pro-choice activists will have to gather more than 170,000 signatures—and outmaneuver Missouri Republicans and anti-abortion activists. In addition to Missouri Stands with Women—which claims they oppose the measure because women and girls “deserve protection from the potential risks posed by unrestricted abortions”— abortion rights activist will also have to contend with Republicans’ non-stop attacks on democracy.

Remember, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been on a mission to stop any ballot measures from moving forward: The Republican had to be forced by the state Supreme Court to sign off on the cost estimate for a proposed amendment (he wanted to claim that restoring abortion rights would cost the states billions of dollars), and says that if a pro-choice measure passes, he’ll refuse to do his job.

All of which is to say, this is going to be a big fight. The Associated Press reports that fundraising for the initiative has been slow to start, so if you want to donate to the effort, click here.

In the States

In other ballot measure news, Virginia Democrats have decided to postpone their efforts to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted to take up the issue in the 2025 session, but the Associated Press reports that this won’t actually postpone when voters would see the ballot measure.

In other Virginia news, a Republican has introduced a total abortion ban. Because of course he did.

Meanwhile, Montana’s Republican Attorney General has blocked an abortion rights ballot measure this week, arguing that the proposed amendment is “legally insufficient.” The Montana Free Press reports that Attorney General Austin Knudsen claims that the pro-choice measure “logrolls multiple distinct political choices into a single initiative.” This is a tactic we saw Ohio anti-choice groups use when they sued over Issue 1, arguing that because the amendment protected not just abortion but contraception, miscarriage treatment and more, that the measure was about more than just one issue.

But Knudsen didn’t just reject the measure over supposed “logrolling.” He also argued that the measure “denies voters the ability to express their views on the nuance” of abortion—which is an absolutely hilarious move to pretend as if his efforts to stop voters from having a say is actually him protecting voters. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so offended.

Abortion rights activists in Montana have 10 days to challenge the decision in court.

An Oklahoma Republican wants to change the state’s constitution to define life as beginning at conception. Rep. Jim Olsen says, “the science is so strong, so incontrovertible that that baby has a life, that it’s living, it has its own unique DNA, and it would be appropriate to recognize that in our state’s constitution.” The legislation wouldn’t just have to be passed by lawmakers, but by voters—and we know what happens when voters have a direct say on abortion rights. So I’m not sure how Olsen thinks this is going to go for him.

In North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the leading Republican candidate for governor, is trying to hide his anti-abortion extremism from voters—he won’t even use the word ‘abortion’ anymore. CNN reports on Robinson’s anti-abortion history, including a podcast interview where he said that the founders of Planned Parenthood were “witches.” Wish I was kidding!

“I’m convinced that Margaret Sanger and all of her contemporaries that followed her, they were witches, all of ‘em. They were witches. I have no doubt. It would not shock me one bit if they were not satanists involved in witchcraft.”

Super normal stuff! Robinson also has called abortion “child sacrifice,” and said that women who have abortions are murderers even if they are only “24 hours pregnant.”

Also in North Carolina, lawyers were in court this week over abortion medication, in a case over whether the state can restrict the pills beyond FDA guidelines. North Carolina law requires that patients jump through all sorts of hurdles to get the medication—including a 72 hour waiting period, state counseling, having the pill administered by a doctor in a “specially certified facility,” and sometimes even an ultrasound.

Last year, a doctor sued over those regulations, arguing that they’re burdensome to physicians and patients. Lawyers for the state, of course, claim that they’re just trying to “protect” women—which, to me, just adds insult to injury. Read more at CourtHouse News, and I’ll be keeping you updated on the case.

Quick hits:

• The Associated Press on the fight over ‘viability’ language in Missouri and beyond;

• Slate looks at the upcoming Florida Supreme Court abortion case;

• Two Texas lawyers are asking the state medical board to clarify what constitutes a medical exception under the state’s abortion ban;

• States that border Indiana are adding clinics and doctors to account for out-of-state patients;

• And Nancy Davis, the Louisiana woman denied an abortion despite having a nonviable pregnancy, has written a column about her experience.

In the Nation

The Biden-Harris campaign is launching an abortion-rights push ahead of the would-be anniversary of Roe next week. President Biden is traveling with Vice President Harris to an abortion rights rally in Virginia—their first joint appearance for their 2024 reelection efforts. The event will focus on Trump’s responsibility for the current abortion bans across the country, and what harms these bans have caused across the country. From Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager:

“Donald Trump is the reason that more than 1 in 3 American women of reproductive age don’t have the freedom to make their own health care decisions. In 2024, a vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is a vote to restore Roe, and a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to ban abortion across the country…These are the stakes in 2024 and we’re going to continue to make sure that every single voter knows it.”

CNN also reports that the Biden-Harris campaign and the DNC will be launching ads in swing states that highlight state-level abortion bans and restrictions.

While Vice President Harris has been out talking about abortion rights across the country since Roe was overturned, Biden has been relatively silent on the issue—only giving abortion rights 30 seconds in his State of the Union speech, and failing to muster up a lot of enthusiasm for the topic when he does talk about it. But with abortion winning election after election, Biden’s reelection team knows that they need to change things up.

As Abortion, Every Day has written before, Biden needs to do more than attack Trump for our post-Dobbs nightmare—but lay out a proactive plan that goes beyond restoring Roe.

That said, there’s no debating the fact that Trump is responsible for all of the horror stories we’ve seen come out over the last year and a half. After yesterday’s abortion rights briefing with Senate Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke to MSNBC’s Alex Wagner about what’s at stake in 2024:

“[Trump] is responsible and abortion will be on the ballot in 2024. He proudly put this Supreme Court in place. He proudly screened them for their position on abortion. He is responsible for the state of abortion in this country right now.”

Other Senators spoke to the press about abortion rights after yesterday’s briefing: Sen. Tammy Baldwin went on The Last Word, with an interview definitely worth checking out. And Sen. Debbie Stabenow was on Deadline: White House—repeating the points I made at the briefing, which was very cool to see!

Meanwhile, anti-abortion Republicans are upset with Speaker Mike Johnson over his funding strategy to avert a government shutdown. The anti-abortion policy riders that the rightwing faction attempted to strong-arm through spending bills have failed, leaving conservatives feeling betrayed by their new speaker—who had promised big anti-abortion wins.

The faction thought the spending fight was their best shot to pass measures like banning medication pill delivery by mail, restricting PEPFAR funding, attacking the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, and defunding Planned Parenthood. As Jezebel’s Kylie Cheung puts it: “A real mouthful of awful ideas that would impose mass suffering and deny health care to millions.”

The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill earlier today, leaving the decision over whether Congress can avert a government shutdown to House leaders. Johnson is also slated to address the March for Life protest in Washington tomorrow, where he will be facing a movement growing tired of funding compromises from Republican House leadership.

Quick hits:

• HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra traveled to a Planned Parenthood in Richmond, Virginia today to promote the White House’s reproductive health care privacy and access strategy; 

• Democrat Sen.Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Sen. Susan Collins are asking Biden to address the disparity in access to contraception between female service-members and civilians;

• The New York Times has an explainer on the EMTALA case heading to the Supreme Court;

• Feminist writer Moira Donegan writes on the abortion provider who battled Anthony Comstock (yes, that Comstock) in the nineteenth century;

• And GOP politicians keep removing their anti-abortion stances from their campaign sites.

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