In the fierce debate over abortion in the United States, the topic of data collection can seem shaky and tangential. But information collected by state and city governments on abortion patients is becoming another flash point in the country’s bitter division over the issue.
Some states with Republican-controlled legislatures have moved to require more information about each abortion, while some states where Democrats dominate are reducing the information they collect, fearing it could be used to identify patients or to sue abortion providers.
“In a very divided country, where abortion is legal in some places and illegal in others, giving one’s place of residence or place of birth seems much riskier than in a country where abortion before viability is legal” , said Rachel Rebouché, dean of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University and an expert on abortion rights. “Interstate conflicts are only intensifying, and the data is the first shot in the arm on how to actualize this conflict,” she added.
Abortion rights supporters say they are particularly concerned about the possibility that anti-abortion states will use the data to track patients who travel out of state for abortions or who receive pills shipped from other states.
These concerns also prompt action at the federal level. On Monday, the Biden administration announced a ruler protect information about abortion patients and providers and prevent it from being used to investigate or prosecute these individuals. This rule is intended to prevent law enforcement in states that restrict abortion from obtaining information about patients who travel to states where abortion is legal and the abortion providers who treat them. It also aims to protect health care providers in patients’ home states who have provided them with unrelated medical care.
“No one should have their medical records used against them, their doctor or their loved one simply because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care,” said Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council , announcing the rule.
In Kansas, the Republican-majority Legislature recently passed a bill that require abortion providers to ask patients 11 questions about why they were terminating their pregnancy, including whether “having a baby would harm the patient’s education, employment, or career” and whether “the patient already has enough or too much children “.
“We still want data, and it would be good for the ministry to know how many women chose to abort because they could not financially pay for the child, or perhaps were forced to, and who did so. forced. ” said Beverly Gossage, a Republican state senator, speaking in favor of the bill during a legislative session.
Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, noting that Kansas voters had approved a 2022 referendum protecting abortion rights. However, the legislator…
