Civil Rights Lawyer Cynthia Conti-Cook ’03 Discusses the Precedent of Using Personal Digital Data to Criminalize Pregnant People

In the New York Times, Cynthia Conti-Cook ’03, civil rights lawyer and technology fellow in gender, racial, and ethnic justice at the Ford Foundation, discusses how data from personal digital devices can be weaponized to prosecute pregnant people accused of feticide or endangering their fetuses. Conti-Cook’s 2020 research paper catalogs the digital evidence anti-abortion prosecutors have used against pregnant people and abortion providers. “It’s hard to say what will happen where and how and when, but the possibilities are pretty perilous,” Conti-Cook said to the New York Times. “It can be very easy to be overwhelmed by all the possibilities, which is why I try to emphasize focusing on what we have seen used against people.” She adds that types of data that have already been used in courts to criminalize pregnant people include Google searches, text and email receipts, website visits. “The text to your sister that says, ‘Expletive, I’m pregnant.’ The search history for abortion pills or the visitation of websites that have information about abortion.”

Post Date: 07-05-2022