Paramedics rushed into the Mississippi home of Latice Fisher, only to find a baby in the toilet already blue, and the umbilical cord still attached. The baby – about 6 pounds and 35 weeks long— was rushed to the hospital at once, where it was confirmed dead.
Fisher, a mother to three children, had claimed that she didn’t know she was pregnant. But she later admitted to a nurse that she had indeed known about the pregnancy. After she had given her iPhone to the police, they discovered that she had searched how to “buy Misopristol Abortion Pill Online” approximately 10 days earlier.
While there is no evidence, that she took the pills, she had bought them, and prosecutors had charged her with “killing an infant child,” identified in the original indictment as “Baby Fisher.” The 2017 case involved American prosecutors who used text messages and online research as evidence against women facing criminal charges related to the end of their pregnancies.
Since then, the Supreme Court has introduced state bans on abortion from the moment of conception. Privacy experts have also warned that many pregnant women and abortion providers may find themselves in similar situations.
“Lots of people Google about abortion and then choose to carry out their pregnancies,” said Laurie Bertram Roberts. She is a spokesperson in the defense of Fisher. “Thought crimes are not the thing. You’re not supposed to be able to be indicted on a charge of what you thought about.” Fisher declined to comment.
Despite the concerns that have begun to pile up about the intricate web of data collected by fertility apps, tech companies, and data brokers, police and prosecutors have turned to more easily accessible data — gleaned from text messages and search history on phones and computers. The records of daily life, whether it was given up voluntarily or obtained with a search warrant, are essentially a gold mine for law enforcement.
“The reality is, we do absolutely everything on our phones these days,” said Emma Roth, a staff attorney at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “There are many, many ways in which law enforcement can find out about somebody’s journey to seek an abortion through digital surveillance.”
There has long been a debate in the United States over abortion. One of the main arguments has long been centered around the idea of “fetal viability,” the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, which experts say is around 24 weeks. A large chunk of abortions in the U.S. occur long before that happens.
Under the case, of Roe v. Wade, the right to abortion before fetal viability was guaranteed. In the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court rejected the test and guaranteed the way for states to restrict access to abortion even earlier in pregnancy.
For years, women have been punished for getting rid of pregnancies. Between 2000 and 2021, around 60 women have been investigated, arrested, or charged for allegedly ending their own pregnancy or assisting someone else to do so, according to an analysis by If/When/How, a reproductive justice nonprofit. If/When/How also claimed that they estimated the number of cases to be much higher.
Digital evidence played a large part in the case of Purvi Patel, an Indiana woman whom the National Advocates for Pregnant Women said in 2015 was the first woman in the United States to be charged, convicted, and sentenced for “feticide” in ending her own pregnancy. Some of the state’s evidence included texts that Patel had sent to a friend Michigan, in which they discussed her plans to take pills that can induce abortion.
The prosecutors also included her web search history in the evidence, where one of the pieces of evidence included a visit to a web page titled: “National Abortion Federation: Abortion after Twelve Weeks.” On her iPad, authorities uncovered an email from InternationalDrugMart.com. And according to court records, detectives could order mifepristone pills and misoprostol pills from that website without a prescription.
According to the Associated Press, Patel was originally sentenced to 20 years but was released after her conviction was overturned.
“It may be difficult to think about digital privacy first when you have other things you’re worried about,” Corynne McSherry, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. She also said given the history of surveillance of disenfranchised communities in the United States, there may be some racial injustice that plays a role in this situation as well. As it appears, Fisher is Black, and Patel is Indian American.
McSherry also commented that tech companies should play a greater role in masking reproductive health data. Google announced that it would delete location history when an abortion clinic is visited.
In the case of Fisher, however, a grand jury charged her with second-degree murder after the state’s medical examiner determined that the baby had been born alive and died from asphyxia. Fisher spent several weeks in jail before the district attorney summoned a new grand jury and they declined to bring charges after they heard the evidence and deemed it antiquated and unreliable.
Women have gone a long way through the rights process, all the way from July 1848, when the first protest for women’s rights began, to today, where women are still fighting for their fundamental rights. This is just another example of the women’s rights movement, and like before, we ought to help them fight in it.
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656875850946x921715788385584600/Police%20used%20texts%2C%20web%20searches%20for%20abortion%20to%20prosecute%20women%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Fisher, a mother to three children, had claimed that she didn’t know she was pregnant. But she later admitted to a nurse that she had indeed known about the pregnancy. After she had given her iPhone to the police, they discovered that she had searched how to “buy Misopristol Abortion Pill Online” approximately 10 days earlier.
While there is no evidence, that she took the pills, she had bought them, and prosecutors had charged her with “killing an infant child,” identified in the original indictment as “Baby Fisher.” The 2017 case involved American prosecutors who used text messages and online research as evidence against women facing criminal charges related to the end of their pregnancies.
Since then, the Supreme Court has introduced state bans on abortion from the moment of conception. Privacy experts have also warned that many pregnant women and abortion providers may find themselves in similar situations.
“Lots of people Google about abortion and then choose to carry out their pregnancies,” said Laurie Bertram Roberts. She is a spokesperson in the defense of Fisher. “Thought crimes are not the thing. You’re not supposed to be able to be indicted on a charge of what you thought about.” Fisher declined to comment.
Despite the concerns that have begun to pile up about the intricate web of data collected by fertility apps, tech companies, and data brokers, police and prosecutors have turned to more easily accessible data — gleaned from text messages and search history on phones and computers. The records of daily life, whether it was given up voluntarily or obtained with a search warrant, are essentially a gold mine for law enforcement.
“The reality is, we do absolutely everything on our phones these days,” said Emma Roth, a staff attorney at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “There are many, many ways in which law enforcement can find out about somebody’s journey to seek an abortion through digital surveillance.”
There has long been a debate in the United States over abortion. One of the main arguments has long been centered around the idea of “fetal viability,” the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, which experts say is around 24 weeks. A large chunk of abortions in the U.S. occur long before that happens.
Under the case, of Roe v. Wade, the right to abortion before fetal viability was guaranteed. In the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court rejected the test and guaranteed the way for states to restrict access to abortion even earlier in pregnancy.
For years, women have been punished for getting rid of pregnancies. Between 2000 and 2021, around 60 women have been investigated, arrested, or charged for allegedly ending their own pregnancy or assisting someone else to do so, according to an analysis by If/When/How, a reproductive justice nonprofit. If/When/How also claimed that they estimated the number of cases to be much higher.
Digital evidence played a large part in the case of Purvi Patel, an Indiana woman whom the National Advocates for Pregnant Women said in 2015 was the first woman in the United States to be charged, convicted, and sentenced for “feticide” in ending her own pregnancy. Some of the state’s evidence included texts that Patel had sent to a friend Michigan, in which they discussed her plans to take pills that can induce abortion.
The prosecutors also included her web search history in the evidence, where one of the pieces of evidence included a visit to a web page titled: “National Abortion Federation: Abortion after Twelve Weeks.” On her iPad, authorities uncovered an email from InternationalDrugMart.com. And according to court records, detectives could order mifepristone pills and misoprostol pills from that website without a prescription.
According to the Associated Press, Patel was originally sentenced to 20 years but was released after her conviction was overturned.
“It may be difficult to think about digital privacy first when you have other things you’re worried about,” Corynne McSherry, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. She also said given the history of surveillance of disenfranchised communities in the United States, there may be some racial injustice that plays a role in this situation as well. As it appears, Fisher is Black, and Patel is Indian American.
McSherry also commented that tech companies should play a greater role in masking reproductive health data. Google announced that it would delete location history when an abortion clinic is visited.
In the case of Fisher, however, a grand jury charged her with second-degree murder after the state’s medical examiner determined that the baby had been born alive and died from asphyxia. Fisher spent several weeks in jail before the district attorney summoned a new grand jury and they declined to bring charges after they heard the evidence and deemed it antiquated and unreliable.
Women have gone a long way through the rights process, all the way from July 1848, when the first protest for women’s rights began, to today, where women are still fighting for their fundamental rights. This is just another example of the women’s rights movement, and like before, we ought to help them fight in it.
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656875850946x921715788385584600/Police%20used%20texts%2C%20web%20searches%20for%20abortion%20to%20prosecute%20women%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
