San Diego City Wire

On the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (CA-51) penned an op-ed for MSNBC.com, calling for passage of her bill, the My Body, My Data Act, which would create a new national standard to protect reproductive and sexual health data. 

Read Rep. Sara Jacobs’ Op-Ed Here

Congresswoman Sara Jacobs wrote:

“Like millions of other young people, I use a period app to track my cycle. But in the post-Roe era, that could lead to serious consequences — even jail time. That’s because there are almost no federal protections for our reproductive and sexual health data. The information you leave behind in period and fertility tracking apps, ride-sharing apps, search engines, browsing history, location data and more can be sold and shared without your consent with advertisers, data brokers or even law enforcement…

“Congress needs to immediately step in and set federal privacy standards for this information. The stakes are far too high. That’s why I introduced the My Body, My Data Act to create a new national standard to protect reproductive and sexual health data. Under my bill, companies “may not collect, retain, use, or disclose personal reproductive or sexual health information, except as is strictly necessary” to provide their services. For example, if you use a period tracking app, like I do, it can track your period information but not your location. You can ask companies to delete your data and they can’t sell or share it. You also have the power to sue companies if you think your data is being misused in any way.”

Original source can be found here.