In late April, police in Nebraska received information that 17-year-old Celeste Burgess gave birth to a stillborn baby and buried the body. Police have issued an indictment for covering up another person’s death and false reporting. But in June, they charged Jessica with offering an abortion to her teenage daughter. The message indicated that the two had discussed obtaining and using abortion pills.
Digital data warrants are routinely used in police investigations. For years, the tech giants have responded to valid court orders regarding certain information sought by law enforcement, but some companies do more to fight for privacy than others. We’ve been there. Millions of people now use apps (such as Signal and WhatsApp) that encrypt their calls and messages so no one, not even the providers themselves, can access their messages.
The Nebraska case isn’t the first time police have used digital data to prosecute an abortion, nor will it be the last. Digital data is rarely the primary form of evidence, but prosecutors use it to paint a picture in court. View messages sent to friends, Internet searches, or emails from online pharmacies. However, as with Burgess, the first to notify authorities are often those around the woman: doctors and nurses, family members, and friends of friends.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, the constitutional right to abortion ended. In doing so, it gave states the power to regulate abortion or ban the procedure outright, sparking a wave of nationwide abortion bans. Prohibits abortion. Georgia recently reinstated its ban after six weeks of pregnancy. Many states also continue to fight in courts over access to abortion.
A week after the ruling, Google announced it would remove location data about visits to abortion clinics and other medical facilities. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said privacy settings should be reviewed. The Digital Defense Fund recommended using encrypted messaging apps. Some suggested deleting period tracking apps. In the context of reproductive rights, it may seem strange to pay so much attention to digital privacy. But looking at his indictments from 2011 to 2022, you can see why these conversations are necessary.
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In May 2011, Idaho police charged Jenny McCormack with self-induced abortion. At 32, he couldn’t afford the legal process. Instead, she took pills she bought online. NPR reported that McCormack confided in his friend shortly after the abortion, and it was the friend’s sister who called the police. When police arrived at her house, they found the fetus wrapped in her back porch.
McCormack admitted to police that she had induced an abortion herself after ingesting five pills. , said it was “prescribed by a doctor.” Years later, an appeals court noted that “McCormack’s sister allegedly found unspecified abortion pills online and paid $200 to have them shipped to McCormack, Idaho.”
At the time, McCormack was facing up to five years in prison. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
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In March 2015, the state of Indiana sentenced Pavi Patel to 20 years in prison for neglect and murder of dependents. Two years ago, after Patel gave birth to her child at her home, she went to the hospital with a hemorrhage. She initially told her medical staff that she was between 10 and 10 weeks pregnant. However, when questioned by two doctors, she admitted her delivery and said her baby was stillborn.
Patel told the doctor that he had put the body in a paper bag and put it in a dumpster at the back of Target’s store, not far from his family’s restaurant. Recovered. “The baby was cold and lifeless,” said a doctor who attended the search, but “the baby otherwise appeared normal and healthy.”
Court documents show police obtained a search warrant for Patel’s phone. A police officer “trained to inspect electronics” downloaded her texts and her messages. Upon reviewing her data, police found she had discussed her abortion with “at least one friend of hers.” Patel also shared that she obtained and took abortion pills from Hong Kong.
An Indiana appeals court overturned the pesticide conviction in July 2016. The court noted that after searching Patel’s iPad, “police found his customer service emails from InternationalDrugMart.com.” The email confirms that Patel ordered mifepristone and misoprostol for $72. Detectives ordered the same pills, presumably to make sure it was possible. Police also found that Patel had visited a website titled “12 Weeks Later Abortion”.
Court documents do not mention what type of phone Patel had or how police accessed her messages. However, the message suggests that she is at least three months old and likely has not deleted any messages or emails from the online pharmacy.
The Indiana Attorney General has decided not to appeal the court’s ruling. In September 2016, Patel was found guilty of child neglect and she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, which was shorter than the time she had already served. A judge then ordered Patel’s immediate release.
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In April 2015, Arkansas police arrested Anne Bynum after giving birth to a stillborn baby at her home. She was charged with covering up the birth and abuse of her dead body. The state also indicted her friend Karen Collins for performing an abortion.
Bynum, who already had one child and worked at a minimum wage job, never told her parents about her pregnancy. When it became difficult to hide her pregnancy, she took medication to induce labor.
Bynum said in a video interview that she gave birth to the baby alone at home in the middle of the night. I wrapped the corpse and went to sleep. The next day she was rushed by ambulance with her remains in the passenger seat. “She gave birth last night, but she couldn’t,” Bynum said. Medical staff determined that it was her stillbirth.
When the hospital left Bynum days later, she was arrested on her way home. Her sheriff handcuffed her and put her in the back seat of her patrol car. Bynum’s trial was short, with only two days of her testimony and several minutes of jury deliberation. Her judge sentenced her to six years in prison, and an appeals court overturned her conviction in December 2018.
It remains unclear who exactly called the police. The Court of Appeals stated that “Bynum had spoken to friends, her attorney, and a priest about her pregnancy and her intention to adopt the child should it be born.” I advised him to go to ,” he texted. Lawyers also called her funeral home and were “recommended by Bynum to take her unborn body to the hospital.”
It’s unclear if Bynum himself shared the texts or if police recovered them in another way.
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In January 2018, the state of Mississippi indicted Lattice Fisher for murdering a newborn baby the previous year. The Washington Post reported that when paramedics arrived at her home, they “found the baby in the bathroom. She said she didn’t know, but later admitted that she had been aware of the pregnancy for at least a month.
Fisher reportedly “voluntarily surrendered” his iPhone to the police. According to court records, her phone’s “memory and data including, but not limited to, Fisher’s past Internet activity were subsequently downloaded”. I just found out that you researched “buy abortion pills, mifeprisone”. [sic] Online, Misoprostol Online”, “Buy Misoprostol Abortion Pills Online”. Fisher also said, “She appears to have purchased misoprostol shortly after these searches.” Another court document suggests police also searched her husband’s phone.
There’s no evidence Fisher took the pill, but prosecutors used her digital data to claim she intended to abort the pregnancy.
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Even if the investigation involves abortion, tech companies may not have many options for handling search warrants from police. But businesses can decide how much digital data they collect about people and how long they keep that information. You can also decide whether to offer end-to-end encryption. This increases the privacy of all messages.In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Meta made her encrypted one-on-one chats on Instagram available to adults in two countries. announced that it will Elon Musk has also said that Direct should encrypt his messages end-to-end before Twitter buys the company, but it’s unclear if this will actually happen.
Last year, a reporter discovered that Facebook and anti-abortion clinics were collecting confidential patient information. Markup also reported that online abortion drug provider Hey Jane has employed a series of online girlfriend trackers that track users across the internet. Recently, ProPublica discovered that nine pharmacies that sell abortion pills shared sensitive data with Google and other third parties. All nine were recommended by Plan C, which provides information on how to obtain abortion pills by mail. No one responded to ProPublica’s request for comment.
Jessica Valenti, publisher of Abortion, Every Day, says, “If you’re white, have the money, and have the ability to travel to a state where abortion is legal, you’ll have a much easier time than people in marginalized communities. You will have a great time.” Everyone has the right to reproductive health care. If the past decade is any indication, it will take us all from doctors, nurses and lawyers to legislators, software engineers and voters to protect essential abortion rights.
Sarah Mitchell-Weed contributed to the research.
