Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has blocked a bill that aimed to prevent police from using data from apps women use to track their menstrual periods on smartphones or other electronic devices. The bill had been passed by the Democrat-led Virginia Senate, and supported by half of the Republicans.
The need to protect people’s health data had been motivated by fears that law enforcement might use them in court proceedings against women accused of abortion.
However, the governor managed to scupper the bill in the House of Representatives, citing unspecified “threats” to the possibility of the investigators to do their job, as reported by the American media.
According to the Washington Post, Maggie Cleary, Youngkin’s assistant secretary of public safety, further explained that “it is not the legislature’s responsibility to limit the scope of search warrants.” While “the administration understands the importance of people’s privacy,” according to Cleary, “this bill would be the first of its kind that I’m aware of, in Virginia or elsewhere, that would set a limit to what police warrants can do”. “This is a unique case,” said Barbara Favola, the Democratic senator initiating the bill, “because there are few things as private and personal as women’s menstrual data.”
Youngkin has already declared that he is ready to sign a law criminalizing abortion. In fact, abortion has become a crime in many states after the Supreme Court repealed the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade, which recognized this right. This decision has allowed many federal states to introduce laws banning abortion.
The latest is Kentucky, where just yesterday a criminal law was passed which equates voluntary interruption to homicide except in the case of risk to the mother’s life. As rights groups have observed, however, the law not only does not take into account the free choice of women, but actually prevents abortion even in cases of sexual violence or incest.
