People entering at abortion clinics are already being tracked via body cameras and vehicle plates.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule soon on a challenge to Roe v. Wade, which, if a leaked draught version of the judgment is correct, may eliminate federal protections for abortion access in the United States. It will have far-reaching ramifications for millions of people if this happens. One of them is that it raises the possibility that anti-abortion campaigners may employ surveillance and data collecting to monitor and identify people seeking abortions, providing authorities with evidence that could lead to criminal charges.
For decades, anti-abortion activists have used techniques such as license plate tracking. It is still a daily reality in front of many clinics across the United States.
People typically had to drive through a gauntlet of protesters carrying cameras and clipboards, photographing their arrival and recording facts about them and their cars, to get to the parking lot of Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example.
Heather Mobley, a Charlotte for Choice board member, works as a clinic defender there. Clinic defenders positioned themselves between clinic attendees and demonstrators, verbally engaging with protesters when necessary. They also keep an eye on the surveillance.
Mobley uses TikTok to post videos of anti-abortion demonstrators’ methods; hers is one of several accounts that capture the everyday protests in the city.
“When they’re out there, they always have a GoPro or similar-looking body cam put up,” Mobley says. When she inquires about it, the protesters explain that they are filming for their own safety. Activists will sometimes set up a public Wi-Fi network called “abortion info” that, if a patient joins thinking it belongs to the clinic, will redirect them to a page with anti-abortion information, she claims.
Renewing old strategies
Anti-abortion activists haven’t utilised the data to track down and harass patients recently, according to the defenders we spoke with, but they have a long history of doing so.
If the Supreme Court finds as expected, state laws will govern access to legal abortion; 13 states, for example, have “trigger laws” that would prohibit abortions if Roe were reversed. This type of surveillance could make crossing state lines in pursuit of care risky for citizens of states that prohibit abortion.
