Dobbs in a Technologized World: Implications for US Data Privacy

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning 50 years of precedent by eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion care established by the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs decision leaves the decision about abortion services in the hands of the states, which created an immediately variegated checkerboard of access to women’s healthcare across the country. This, in turn, laid bare a profusion of privacy issues that emanate from our technologized world. Here, we review these privacy issues, including healthcare data, financial data, website tracking and social media. We then offer potential future legislative and regulatory pathways that balance privacy with law enforcement goals in women’s health and any domain that shares this structural feature.