By now, we don’t have to tell you about Friday’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Supreme Court ruling knocked down abortion rights across the US, and the true implications for different states have yet to be fully determined. To be clear, it’s not just an issue for cisgender women: It also affects transgender and nonbinary individuals. It’s also something that tech companies need to be thinking about and taking action on — especially when it comes to consumer privacy and protection.
Depending on where you’re located, this ruling has a few connotations. In the DMV region, for instance: DC leaders do plan on maintaining legal abortions in the district, but it gets a little complicated with Congress approving our laws (though in the worst-case scenario of a Republican-led Congress stripping DC of its safe abortion laws, it would likely get a veto from President Joe Biden). In Maryland, the state even expanded its abortion laws recently. Virginia currently allows abortions up until 25 weeks, although the governor is currently looking to bring that down to 15 weeks.
But there’s much more to this than just whether or not abortions are legal in your particular jurisdiction. Tech companies, particularly health and fertility tech ones, have plenty to consider following this ruling. Bethany Corbin, a senior counsel at law firm Nixon Gwilt Law specializing in femtech and privacy laws (who is based in South Carolina, but previously worked at DC firm Wiley Rein), answered some of our questions about reproductive tech, privacy and more.
