Women’s Rights

Riley Kinzer, Staff Writer

On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court essentially overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that decriminalized abortion nationwide. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court gave each state the right to legislate abortion. Many states immediately enacted bans and laws outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking. While this decision was a big blow to women’s rights, it is a series of seemingly more minor laws and legislation that pose a significant risk to women’s rights.

In Florida, legislatures have recently put into place policies requiring the detailed medical information of student-athletes to be handled by a third-party digital platform. Florida has long documented the medical records of student-athletes which includes information on menstruation. The questions asked include the average time between periods, how many periods they’ve had in the last year, and the longest time between periods in the past year. Aktivate, a third-party digital platform, will now keep this information.

The real danger is that this information can be used to identify and out transgender students. This is a prominent cultural issue in many states, including Florida. The information consists of a young person’s private, personal medical, and mental health information. Now, more people will have access to that confidential information. It is worth noting that the Privacy policy of Aktivate says, “student data can be accessed by law enforcement and other government entities if requested.” Finally, menstruation information can be used to identify whether a person is or has been pregnant. With laws banning abortion, students must be worried that the information will be used to identify and prosecute them. In June, Facebook turned over message data between a mom and daughter in Nebraska to the police. They were discussing how to get abortion medication for their 17-year-old daughter. She is now in court being prosecuted for violating the state’s abortion ban.

Women’s Rights can be attacked directly by decisions like those in Dobbs, but they can also be chipped away by legislation like this Florida menstruation law. We must be aware of all of these attacks.