Last month, a new investigation by Tortoise revealed that the police are testing women for abortion drugs and requesting data from period tracking apps after “unexplained pregnancy losses.”
Forensic reports showed that police requested tests to detect abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol in the blood and urine of women under investigation.
The findings come following the sentencing of Carla Foster. Foster was sentenced to 28 months in prison for illegally inducing an abortion during lockdown by taking the at-home pills at 32 to 34 weeks. (‘Pills-by-post’ abortions, introduced during lockdown, are now a permanent part of access to abortion in the UK). Foster already had three children, one of whom is autistic; she was released last summer after her sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal.
Phoebe Davis, who wrote the Tortoise story, told Glamour UK she was “overwhelmed” to see the reach that the story had on social media: “It was clear from reactions to the piece that many people have serious concerns about the impact of these investigations on women who had just had a miscarriage or stillborn and the public interest in police resourcing these investigations. However, what was most striking was how many people – including women – appeared to not be aware that abortion remains criminalised in some circumstances.
"The protections many menstrual app companies put in place after Roe v Wade was overturned last year were reassuring, but they don't necessarily stop police from taking that data directly from a seized device after an arrest. As one expert told me, there are also clear gendered elements to digital strip searches based on her research into police accessing victims' phones in sexual abuse and assault cases.
"Menstrual tracking apps can also be incredibly helpful for people who have periods in tracking a variety of health conditions (endometriosis, PMDD, PCOS), so it is personally frustrating to see a potentially beneficial technology being involved in criminal investigations which may stop deter people from using the apps.”
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said: “It would be at the discretion of the senior investigating officer leading the case to determine which reasonable lines of enquiry to follow, which may include toxicology or digital data – depending on the merits of the specific case.”
And where the UK stands.
What the apps say
So, how safe is our data? We approached three leading period tracker apps to ask.
Audrey Tsang, CEO of Clue, reiterated what they’d said after women in the US lost their constitutional right to abortion: that Clue has never disclosed users’ private health data to any authority and never will.
Tsang added: “We deeply understand how important it is to our users that we keep their data safe. So, no matter where our users are in the world, we will never allow their private health data to be used against them. This has been our policy and firm commitment since Clue’s foundation over a decade ago. As a Clue user, your data is not only protected by German and EU data privacy laws, but also by our willingness to stand up for our users and their health data privacy.”
“Criminalising women in this way compromises everyone and benefits no one.”
Sue Khan, vice president of privacy and data protection officer at Flo Health, said that at the time of writing, no one at Flo had been approached by the UK police for data.
“As of today, Flo has never received a request from British authorities requesting user data. The privacy of our users is paramount to us. Flo will always advocate for the protection of individual’s privacy rights and challenge the legal validity of any disclosure request.
Khan also encourages users with privacy concerns to use the app in ‘Anonymous Mode’ (launched last year) – without using a name or email: “Our Anonymous Mode feature was created to protect our users’ privacy further, allowing them to access the Flo app without their email, name, or technical identifiers being associated with their Flo account. Flo, therefore, cannot identify or fulfil any information requests for Anonymous Mode users.” Anonymous Mode was added to the app after it reportedly shared data with third parties in 2021.
Apple didn’t make a specific statement, but in a white paper they published earlier this year, it seemed that police would only be able to access a person’s Health app data with access to the user’s unlocked phone.
“For users with two-factor authentication, a device passcode, and a device running iOS 12 or later, Health app data is end-to-end encrypted. As a result, data in the Health app is not readable by anyone – even Apple,” authors write. “Data shown in the Health app like ... Cycle Tracking predictions are calculated on-device. This on-device storage and computation helps ensure that Apple does not see this data in order to provide health metrics and summaries... Data in the Health app is not readable by someone with physical access to your device unless they have your passcode.”
Beyond the big three, you can also access other period tracker apps that have deliberately been developed in response to security concerns – for example:
- Euki describes itself as a ‘privacy-first’ period tracker and was developed by a non-profit, Women Help Women (the biggest facilitator of abortion care in Poland). Your data can be PIN-protected to keep it safer.
- Drip is a device-only tracker where you can password-protect your data. (It’s also gender-inclusive). The app is free and non-commercial, and the software is open source.
Women have been urged to delete their period tracking apps.
What experts say
Clare Murphy, chief exec of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), called the investigations “a terrifying turn of events.”
“We are seeing increasing police involvement in what should be private healthcare issues between a woman and those caring for her,” she said. “Criminalising women in this way compromises everyone and benefits no one; it harms women, it harms their health and their ability to confide in a healthcare professional, which may well, in turn, harm their pregnancies. This has to end. We need the decriminalisation of abortion now.”
Chi Onwurah, the MP for Newcastle on Tyne Central, warned Wired readers in January that “deleting period apps is not enough” – that search histories for abortion clinic locations, for example, may be part of data that could be used against women under investigation for unexplained pregnancy losses. (Google promised to delete location data for abortion clinics, but during an investigation earlier this year, a Washington Post reporter found that the service logged his).
The UK Home Office was approached but did not comment.
As Clare Murphy says, it’s terrifying to hear that the police seek blood samples and app data from people following unexplained pregnancy loss. It’s even more baffling to see abortion criminalised in this way when the majority of people in the UK (89%) believe in a woman’s right to choose and consistently report as much. Bpas has warned that the loss of the pills-by-post scheme could create a 43% increase in terminations post-20 weeks.
If you’re looking for a way to action on this issue, start with Bpas’s Time To Act campaign, where you can email your MP, donate and get regular updates on stories like this.
Abortions = healthcare.
