LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – After the recent ruling on abortion, it appears that people are looking at other options for their reproductive health decisions.
Inquiries by men about vasectomies are up dramatically across the country and on Friday July 1st, Google had a peak in searches for the word “vasectomy.”
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In addition to men taking charge of their role in controlling pregnancy, women are also looking into other alternatives.
A press release sent out by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel points to the existence of phone apps that trace fertility and menstrual cycles.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, one-third of American women have used a fertility tracker. Two of the most popular ones, Flo and Clue, have more than 55 million users combined.
Nessel is concerned that these apps will share information with third parties including law enforcement if abortion is criminalized in her state. She issued a consumer alert to warn Michigan residents about how they can protect their personal information.
Nessel said in her press release “there are a lot of unknowns as we face a post-Roe era, but one
thing that remains certain is that consumers can protect themselves and their private information.”
She implores users of these apps to read the fine print of their user agreements before they share their menstrual and fertility information with the makers of the apps.
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A report from the technology news website Engadget reminds women that he data that is given to the
apps is not protected by HIPAA.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some women have downloaded the apps while others are deleting them from their phones because they don’t want the possibility of the information being used against them in a court of law where abortion has been made illegal.
President Biden has also addressed privacy risks with the sharing of reproductive healthcare data in today’s “Executive Order on Protecting Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services.”
The Executive Order has many directives including addressing a potential threat to privacy caused by
the transfer and sale of sensitive health-related data.
He asks the Secretary of Health and Human Services to consider actions to strengthen the protection of sensitive reproductive healthcare data and to work with the Attorney General to educate consumers on the best ways to protect that data and limit the collection and sharing of their sensitive health-related information.
Biden also encourages the Federal Trade Commission to consider appropriate actions to “protect consumers’ privacy when seeking information about and provision of reproductive healthcare services.
