MassLive.Com | Mass. House Dems propose data ‘shield’ around reproductive care

By State House News Service and John L. Micek | jmicek@masslive.com | Originally Published by MassLive.com

Democrats who control the state House of Representatives are eyeing a Wednesday vote on a bill that would prohibit cell phone carriers and other data providers from collecting or selling location information when Bay Staters seek abortions and other sensitive health care.

A trimmed-down bill set to emerge this week would create a location data “shield” around reproductive and gender-affirming care, barring companies and other actors from wielding that information to harass patients or pursue enforcement of restrictions on care that other states have implemented.

The measure focuses only on reproductive and gender-affirming care and does not reach into other areas of digital privacy, where activists have called for extensive reforms.

Pitching the bill as a follow-up to the 2022 law shielding providers from legal action originating in other states, House Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Aaron Michlewitz recalled a meeting at the White House last year with other state legislators about maintaining access to reproductive care in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape.

“Everyone in the room from different states was looking to Massachusetts as we are the leader in this conversation, but everyone else in the room had some data privacy piece on this that we hadn’t,” Michlewitz, D-3rd Suffolk, told State House News Service.

“It was very clear to me in that conversation that this was something we were lacking in in comparison to other states,” he said.

Twenty-two states have some form of location data privacy requirements for abortion, reproductive health and gender-affirming services, according to Michlewitz.

The proposed restrictions on data collection and sale could help people feel secure that when they seek care, “their information is being protected and not being used against them in one way, shape or form,” Michlewitz said.

“We’re living in a world where data is easily attainable for many folks,” he said, referencing the constant stream of data collected by phones in virtually everyone’s pockets,” the House’s top budget writer continued. “Using it to different degrees is something we certainly have a concern about, particularly when it comes to the reproductive rights world and the gender-affirming care world.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling ended the federal right to an abortion in June 2022, some Republican-controlled states have enacted more severe limitations on the procedure, as well as on other forms of reproductive care or health care sought by transgender individuals.

In July 2022, about one month after the Dobbs decision, former Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a measure shielding reproductive and gender-affirming care providers in the Bay State from legal action originating elsewhere.

The new House bill would only allow data providers to collect location information at reproductive and gender-affirming care sites if a user gave consent, if the user was provided a copy of the location privacy policy ahead of time, and if the data was used for a permissible purpose such as billing or shipping, according to House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office.

“While Massachusetts has a proud history of protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care, evolving efforts from extremist Republicans across the country, made possible by the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, continue to threaten the safety of women who come to the Commonwealth from other states to seek care, as well as the security of health care providers here in Massachusetts,” Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said in a statement.

“Due to that draconian reality, the House will vote this week on legislation that prevents cell phone location information from being used to track individuals seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care in the Commonwealth, ensuring that the right to receive and provide that care remains ironclad in Massachusetts,” Mariano continued.

Michlewitz said the House Ways and Means Committee will poll members on the redrafted legislation on Tuesday. Democrats will seek a vote on the bill on Wednesday.

A copy of the new text was not immediately available. But Michlewitz said it focuses only on reproductive and gender-affirming care location data.

Civil rights and privacy advocates have been pressing lawmakers on broader proposals, and Michlewitz said lawmakers are still working through “concerns about different pieces.”

“We just felt the timing was important, before we get to the end of the session, to get something out there, to get this thing moving,” he said.

Formal legislative business for the term ends on July 31, after which any single lawmaker’s opposition will be capable of stalling a bill’s progress.

By waiting until this point to unveil and advance the location shield bill, House Democrats leave themselves about three weeks to convince their counterparts in the Senate to take action on the measure and then negotiate a final compromise.

Michlewitz said representatives and senators have discussed the topic at the subject-matter committee level.

But Michlewitz said he had not spoken with Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Michael Rodrigues, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, about the legislation.

“It’s not pre-conferenced, so we’ll see where it goes,” he said, referring to the customary conference committee process that irons out the differences in bills passed by the two chambers.

In a joint statement, a coalition of reproductive rights and civil liberties groups welcomed the bill, calling it “crucial progress” in ongoing work to block abortion opponents from tracking people who travel to the state for abortion care.

"Protecting digital privacy is key to protecting bodily autonomy and reproductive justice in the digital age. Massachusetts elected officials must continue to fight with renewed urgency to ensure that we the people maintain control over our most private and personal information,” Carol Rose, the executive director of the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said.

Rebecca Hart Holder, president of the advocacy group Reproductive Equity Now, credited the Legislature for “continually recogniz[ing] the evolving threat to abortion patients and providers and has aggressively expanded access and protected care since the fall of [Roe v. Wade].

Since the high court’s ruling toppling Roe, “hostile actors have targeted the location data of patients and providers in all 50 states, and now, we are increasingly concerned that this data will be weaponized against those seeking and providing care in Massachusetts,” Hart Holder continued.

Reflecting the sentiment of her colleagues, and expressing optimism for the bill’s eventual passage, Dominique Lee, the president of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, thanked senior leaders for the vote.

"We know that purchasing location data to target Planned Parenthood patients or providers is part of the anti-abortion playbook, not just in restrictive states but everywhere,” Lee said. “To prevent this from happening in Massachusetts, we need to act.”