WASHINGTON, D.C. — As a result of a ban on abortion rights in states like Ohio, Tim Ryan is calling to pass federal legislation to protect the personal health data of women and people seeking reproductive care.
In a new video on Twitter, he lays out how in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it’s more urgent than ever that the federal government act swiftly to prevent politicians from requiring companies to turn over private data — including from search history and health tracker apps — to apprehend women trying to get an abortion.
“This is the largest governmental overreach into the private lives of American citizens in the history of this country,” said Tim Ryan. “And this is just the beginning. We know that these extremist politicians want to continue to prosecute doctors for performing abortions, prosecute women for having abortions… If you’re googling health care information, if you have a health tracker app — that information needs to be protected federally, regardless of what state you’re in, because those are the personal freedoms that we cherish so much here in the United States.”
In Congress, Tim is cosponsoring the My Body, My Data Act, which would limit private companies’ ability to collect and disseminate users’ reproductive health information and make it easier for users to delete their data and control how it is used. This comes as extreme abortion bans in states like Ohio open the door for prosecutors to demand access to personal data in order to punish those who seek or provide abortion care.
While Tim is taking on Big Tech to protect Ohio women’s data privacy and reproductive freedom, JD Vance is a San Francisco venture capitalist bankrolled by a Big Tech billionaire, and wants to ban abortion — including for survivors of rape and incest, which he has shrugged off as “circumstances… [that] are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society.”