LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democrats are pushing this month to pass legislation they say will improve reproductive health care, particularly the security of digital health data, before Republicans take over the House in 2025.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is backing a bill to protect reproductive health data, including data logged in menstrual cycle tracking apps. Similar laws passed in other states aim to prevent data from being used to target people seeking abortions.
“There seems to be a very urgent need for us to get this done while we have a Democratic majority window in Michigan over the next few weeks,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a sponsor of the digital privacy bill.
The rush is a response to expectations that it will be harder to pass reproductive health policies favored by Democrats after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January. Democrats retained control of the state Senate in the November election.
Republicans have rejected the digital privacy bill over a section they say will suppress anti-abortion advertising.
Other reproductive health bills to be considered during the December session, which began Tuesday, include a Black maternal health package and expanding access to contraception.
After the fall of Roe v. Wade, some women in states with strict abortion bans began to fear that their health data could be used to track their reproductive status. Apps that track the menstrual cycle came into focus.
Abortion is constitutionally protected in Michigan. But McMorrow doesn’t trust President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to veto a possible nationwide abortion ban, nor his campaign’s efforts to distance itself from Project 2025, which proposed restricting access to abortion and contraception.
Period tracking apps allow women to keep detailed notes about their health every day, from how weighty their period is to additional symptoms like cramps. You can log pregnancies and miscarriages.
“These tools are really valuable,” McMorrow said. “I just want to make sure that the guardrails are in place if there are signs from the new federal administration that they would potentially weaponize the data in a very dangerous way.”
Federal law prohibits medical providers from sharing health data without patient consent, but does not prevent digital technology companies from tracking menstrual cycles or a person’s location and selling them to data brokers. Legislation on federal bans has never gained momentum, largely due to opposition from the tech industry.
How legislation works varies from state to state. Washington state has a digital privacy law that broadly covers all health-related information, while Virginia has a law that specifically prohibits the issuance of search warrants, subpoenas, or court orders for electronic or digital menstrual health information.
Michigan’s proposal would require companies or organizations to employ reproductive health data only for the services they provide, and consumers must be informed about how the data will be used. In order to sell this data, a company would need express, signed consent from the consumer. Consumers would also have the opportunity to object to the sale of their data at any time.
It would also regulate retailers, which often collect data to target consumers with advertising, as well as the employ of geofencing, which allows marketers to target consumers with advertising based on their location.
The bill would prohibit using location information to determine who seeks reproductive health care and targeting them with advertising. This would apply to people attending fertility or abortion clinics.
The bill’s geofencing provision has drawn objections from abortion opponents. Genevieve Marnon, Michigan legislative director for Right to Life, said in a committee hearing Tuesday that the bill would prevent anti-abortion ads from reaching women who visit abortion clinics.
“This does not protect women’s reproductive health data,” she said. “It limits the options available to women.”
Republican Senator John Damoose, who voted against the bill in committee, believes the geofencing provision restricts freedom of speech and religion by preventing anti-abortion advertising.
The bill passed committee on Tuesday on partisan lines and was sent to the Senate floor for a final vote on Thursday.
Kimya Forouzan, senior director for state policy at the Guttmacher Institute, assumes that the issue will be taken up by other state parliaments next year. Guttmacher, which advocates for abortion rights, tracks trends in reproductive health.
Over the past two years, Michigan Democrats have passed bills that would repeal a number of anti-abortion laws, including the state’s 1931 ban, and add surrogacy protections to state law. Lawmakers are considering a number of other issues related to reproductive health this month.
A series of bills focused on improving the maternal health of Black women would, among other things, create a doula fellowship. The Senate approved its package on the issue before the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Rep. Jaime Churches, a Democrat from downstream Detroit who lost her seat in November, is trying to gain traction for two bills that would require insurance to cover fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination. would prescribe.
Three bills aimed at expanding access to birth control through insurance have passed the state House of Representatives. McMorrow also introduced a series of bills aimed at making eternal reversible contraception, such as implants or intrauterine devices, available to patients who gave birth before being discharged from the hospital.
There is competition for time among Democrats during this tiny, leisurely session. Advocates for economic development, infrastructure and gun control measures are among many looking to push through bills in the remaining month. Major arguments over fresh paid infirmed leave and minimum wage requirements are likely to raise eyebrows. These discussions could result in less time being available for debate on reproductive health policies.
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