By Katie Gu
Within the post- world, the accessibility of recent reproductive applied sciences is morphing from an intentional design function right into a dystopian defect.
Many trendy reproductive applied sciences had been created with an express intent of returning reproductive freedom and company again to people. These applied sciences — which usually digital units, software program, and different know-how referring to girls’s well being — are to handle disparities in reproductive healthcare and well being outcomes by empowering people to say higher management over their reproductive lives. Equally, the adoption of digital medical data was to provide people higher entry to and management over their private medical well being info.
The rapid affect of recent reproductive applied sciences, similar to telemedicine, interval monitoring apps, and drugs abortion, is to entry to this proper for marginalized teams. That these people are on the receiving finish of those applied sciences is explicitly emphasised within the publicity of some reproductive well being know-how firms. For instance, the mission assertion of , the producer of the primary FDA-approved generic type of mifepristone, is “placing entry into follow.” It itself as an “revolutionary pharmaceutical firm devoted to placing reproductive well being care inside attain” by “lowering limitations, rising entry, and advocating for suppliers and sufferers alike.”
Past its preliminary focusing on of abortion clinics and surgical procedures, the post-Dobbs conflict towards reproductive autonomy has now recognized trendy applied sciences — particularly, these designed for underserved communities — as its subsequent goal. The huge digital realms of well being info contained in , , , , and are actually topic to heightened state surveillance, focusing on, and exploitation. In a outstanding case final June, a Nebraska detective entry to Fb messages despatched between a mom and daughter, the latter of whom was managing a late-term medicine abortion, and used these digital communications to the pair with a sequence of felonies and misdemeanors.
This instance highlights how applied sciences that had been explicitly designed with the intent of broadening entry now pose dangers post-Dobbs, that are primarily borne by .
Of their article , Leah Fowler and Michael Ulrich emphasize how femtech is transitioning from its origins as choice-preserving instruments designed with the “potential to boost bodily autonomy within the pockets of anybody with a smartphone” into legislation enforcement applied sciences that disproportionately police poor individuals of coloration. With regard to digital medical data, Carleen Zubrzycki has famous in that information portability, previously a design function and energy, now grants legislation enforcement easy accessibility to delicate information, paving the best way for higher surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people.
Conclusion
Dobbs has accelerated a re-examination of recent reproductive healthcare applied sciences. What occurs when, as a result of modifications within the legislation, the affect of a know-how begins to contravene its initially designed function? Whose duty is it to drive the redesign or reconsideration of such applied sciences?
As Fowler and Ulrich argue, a various set of stakeholders can (and may) divide this duty. Lawmakers can introduce necessities, similar to these within the , that pressure a redesign of recent reproductive applied sciences to handle new privateness and safety considerations. On the again finish, know-how firms can incorporate information minimization and deletion finest practices to scale back the combination quantity of delicate information accessible for state surveillance and exploitation. Whereas these firms have important profit-based incentives to maximise information troves, Fowler and Ulrich observe that company social duty and shopper goodwill also can induce a type of self-regulation inside the know-how trade. Particular person actors, together with legal professionals and grassroots advocates, can increase public consciousness concerning privateness protections and precautionary measures wanted to safeguard the post-Dobbs digital future.
Collectively, these actions can forestall the democratic design functions of reproductive well being applied sciences, centered round fairness and accessibility, from mutating into dystopian design defects.