In Case You Missed It: Congresswoman Sara Jacobs Leads Fight For Reproductive Rights in Congress
In case you missed it, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs is leading the fight to protect reproductive health data and defend the right to contraception after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last month.
On Friday, Congresswoman Jacobs, along with Reps. Kathy Manning (NC-06), Nikema Williams (GA-05), and Angie Craig (MN-02), introduced the Right to Contraception Act. The bill, which would create a federal statutory right for people to obtain contraceptives, would also protect specific contraceptive methods, devices, and medications including oral contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, and intrauterine devices, The Times of San Diegoreports. This bill is scheduled to be voted on in the House this week.
Last month, Congresswoman Jacobs introduced the My Body, My Data Act, an effort to protect personal reproductive health data collected by apps, cell phones, and search engines, Time reports. The My Body My Data Act has received broad support from reproductive rights and data privacy organizations, including Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), NARAL Pro-Choice America, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), National Partnership for Women & Families, the National Abortion Federation (NAF), Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE), Catholics for Choice, Feminist Majority, and Indivisible.
“The My Body, My Data Act, introduced in the House [and the Senate] on June 16 …would task the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with enforcing a national privacy standard for reproductive health data collected by apps, cell phones, and search engines. It would require that companies collect and store only the health information that is strictly needed to provide their services. It would also give users the right to access or delete their personal data.”
Speaking with Fox 5 San Diego, Congresswoman Jacobs explained that because no federal protections currently exist for this highly sensitive data, users are vulnerable to having their own data used against them.
“Right now, there is no federal rule about what companies can do with this data. Many of these companies' business models are about collecting the data and selling it to data brokers or ad agencies so that they can do more targeted ads to you… Currently, this data can be bought, sold, or shared with anybody, there is no federal protection… We know that this data can be misused. Right now, in states that are criminalizing abortion state Attorneys General could use it to prosecute someone seeking an abortion.”
Congresswoman Jacobs spoke in depth about the bill with Marie Claire, stressing that while following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe the most important thing Congress can do is codify the right to abortion, there is still a whole range of other actions Congress must take to protect people seeking abortions.
“What we need to be thinking about is, yes, we need to codify the right to abortion into law. That's priority number one. But, there are so many other things we can also be doing to make sure we're protecting people in the meantime, like this bill on reproductive health data, like making sure that we are continuing to provide people access to birth control, to assisted fertility, to the full range of reproductive health options.
To this point, another thing that I'm working on is actually making sure our military members have access to that full range of reproductive health options, making sure that insurance covers assisted fertility in many different instances, and not just the really narrow ones that they do right now,” Congresswoman Sara Jacobs told Marie Claire.
You can learn more about Congresswoman Jacobs’ My Body, My Data Act in Time here.
You can watch Congresswoman Jacobs’ full decision with Fox 5 San Diego here.
You can read Congresswoman Jacobs’ full interview with Marie Claire here.
Additional coverage about Congresswoman Jacobs leading the fight for reproductive freedom can be found below:
- The Times of San Diego: Rep. Jacobs Co-Sponsors Bill to Protect Women’s Right to Use Contraceptives
- The Washington Post: Period apps gather intimate data. A new bill aims to curb mass collection.
- The New York Times: In a Post-Roe World, the Future of Digital Privacy Looks Even Grimmer
- CNBC: U.S. health laws don’t always protect abortion information, but new bills could fill the gaps
- Ms. Magazine: Senators Introduce Bill To Protect Reproductive Health Data: ‘My Body, My Data’
- Fast Company: Congresswoman Sara Jacobs explains why we need to protect reproductive health data
- Essence: Democrats Introduce ‘My Body, My Data Act’ To Limit Collection Of Reproductive Health Data
- It Pro Today: My Body, My Data Act Tackles Online Privacy in Wake of Roe v. Wade Decision
- The Information: ‘My Body, My Data’: The Tech Heir Congresswoman Bringing a New Privacy Fight to the Capitol