By Hilleary Barbara Gramling*
With the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the United States Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion and discarded nearly fifty years of precedent. Since the decision, fourteen states completely ban abortions and, in total, nearly half of the United States restricts abortions. Such restrictions limit accessibility to not only abortion-related care, but also reproductive healthcare in general. The Dobbs decision has cascading consequences in a world where almost everyone is “online,” and nearly every app on any given device collects accessible, minable data that can illuminate an individual’s choices, habits, and even their thoughts. The Dobbs holding incited an unexpected and dangerous reality—one where device data takes on another dimension of value, evolving into evidence procured by law enforcement to prosecute individuals for seeking abortions—and sometimes even to prosecute individuals who experienced stillbirths and miscarriages. Focusing specifically on privacy concerns under the U.S. Constitution in criminal prosecutions, by drawing a parallel between device data and the cell site location information analyzed in Carpenter v. United States, this Article urges that obtaining device data from location services, period-tracking apps, and search engines without a warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on illegal searches and seizures. To navigate this complex and evolving area of law, this Article delineates avenues and approaches advocates must take to protect individuals adversely impacted by the Dobbs decision.