post Roe tactic to thwart anti choice zealots: Information

[Demovictory9]

The recent experience of Texas residents demonstrates that large numbers of pregnant people will find a way to get abortions, no matter what the law says. Even though last September the state banned abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, in the following months the abortion rate fell by only about 10 percent. One reason is that Texans traveled to clinics in other states, but another reason is that larger numbers obtained pills for early abortions online, through organizations like Aid Access, or directly from international pharmacies.

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The anti-abortion movement is likely to continue to deploy another longstanding tactic: deceiving people. Already, one in 10 Google searches for abortion services in states likely to ban abortion directs users to crisis pregnancy centers — groups that often imply that they provide abortions when their mission is actually to block people from getting abortions.

Expect anti-abortion activists to set up websites pretending to sell abortion pills or even selling fake abortion pills. As is often the case at crisis pregnancy centers, the hope would be that the person will time out of the recommended 10-week window for having an abortion with medication. More broadly, logging onto these sites may alert anti-abortion activists to people seeking abortions who then can be threatened with criminal prosecution if they follow through with the abortion, whether the state officially permits that or not.

In a post-Roe environment, how can these pitfalls be avoided? To combat a general lack of awareness, politicians, health care providers, advocacy organizations and average citizens need to spread awareness about medication abortion, reliable places to find it and who can help if complications arise. Free-speech guarantees should protect the provision of accurate information about medication abortion, even if abortion services are prohibited in a particular state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/opinion/abortion-pills-online-roe-v-wade.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for your excellent post! Information is KEY. We must make sure to provide it. n/t

[Demovictory9]

2. we must ALL become informed. male, female, old, young

to be able to steer vulnerable women towards resources.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. Wouldn't it be great if the federal government maintained a website of legit resources?

That would be a great, and in-your-face to the 6 scumbags on the SC, public service resource.

[usonian]

4. Some privacy resources.

First, my rejoinder that Google keeps a history of your searches, and never deletes it, and they sell the information to "advertisers" who could be anyone. And oh, cops get it. Same for Facebook.

Nobody adequately banishes misinformation and lies.

That said,
The Electronic Frontier's (EFF's) Statement on Dobb's Abortion Ruling
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/effs-statement-dobbs-abortion-ruling
Emphasis mine.

By Cindy Cohn and Corynne McSherry
June 24, 2022

Today's decision deprives millions of people of a fundamental right, and also underscores the importance of fair and meaningful protections for data privacy. Everyone deserves to have strong controls over the collection and use of information they necessarily leave behind as they go about their normal activities, like using apps, search engine queries, posting on social media, texting friends, and so on. But those seeking, offering, or facilitating abortion access must now assume that any data they provide online or offline could be sought by law enforcement.

People should carefully review privacy settings on the services they use, turn off location services on apps that don’t need them, and use encrypted messaging services. Companies should protect users by allowing anonymous access, stopping behavioral tracking, strengthening data deletion policies, encrypting data in transit, enabling end-to-end message encryption by default, preventing location tracking, and ensuring that users get notice when their data is being sought. And state and federal policymakers must pass meaningful privacy legislation. All of these steps are needed to protect privacy, and all are long overdue.

More resources are available at our reproductive rights issue page.
https://www.eff.org/issues/reproductive-rights

EFF also has a page on
Digital Security and Privacy Tips for Those Involved in Abortion Access
I quote it entirely here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/109530163
You can find the original here:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/digital-security-and-privacy-tips-those-involved-abortion-access