Safegraph follows people into abortion clinics and then sells the data

And then they lie about it.

Cory Doctorow

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A Planned Parenthood office; the looming head of Pinocchio enters the frame from the top left corner; Pinocchio’s eyes have been replaced with the glowing red eyes of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The blue sky is filled with tesselated versions of the SafeGraph logo, a collection of ball-and-stick elements. Image: Paul Sableman (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasa/6149265334 CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.or

As theocrats in robes, appointed by presidents who lost their elections, make ready to impose forced birth on half of America, it’s right to worry that police in thrall to “the party of small government” will spy on, hunt down, and punish people who get abortions (or miscarry).

It’s not all despair. This era of forced birth offers many possibilities that were denied in the pre-Roe era. The advent of abortion pills, which can be procured by mail, is truly game-changing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/04/abortion-pills-online-telemedicine/

Some of these pills will be mailed from foreign lands, others from out-of-state. States whose governments oppose the forced-birth movement have vowed to defend their residents from legal persecution emanating from forced-birth states.

Telemedicine also profoundly changes the tactical landscape. Digital abortion clinics like Hey Jane are committed to providing low-cost care to all comers:

https://www.wired.com/story/telemedicine-abortion-post-roe-future/

Even those low costs may be beyond the means of the poor people whom forced-birth laws target (wealthy pregnant people can just buy a plane ticket out…

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Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow

Written by Cory Doctorow

Writer, blogger, activist. Blog: https://pluralistic.net; Mailing list: https://pluralistic.net/plura-list; Mastodon: @pluralistic@mamot.fr

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