House Passes Bill to Protect Privacy of Individuals Seeking Reproductive and Gender Affirming Care

Bill prohibits the sale of reproductive and gender affirming care location information from cellphones

JULY 12, 2024

Earlier this week Representative Bill Driscoll Jr. (D-Milton) joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in passing legislation to protect the privacy of individuals seeking reproductive and gender affirming care by prohibiting the sale of cellphone data collected during visits to health care facilities in Massachusetts that offer those services.

“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,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “That draconian reality was the driving force behind the House’s passage of this legislation, which will ensure that the right to receive and provide reproductive and gender affirming health care remains ironclad in Massachusetts. I want to thank Chairman Michlewitz for his work on this issue, as well as Representative Lipper-Garabedian for her longstanding support for these reforms. I’m grateful to my colleagues in the House for voting to pass this legislation, and for their continued focus on protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care services in the Commonwealth.”

“This legislation takes crucial action in protecting the right to privacy for Massachusetts residents,” said Driscoll. “Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, providers of and patients seeking reproductive or gender affirming health care are at risk of cellphone data tracking meant to target and restrict access. I am proud to stand with my colleagues as we move forward this effort meant to limit discrimination against those providing or seeking this type of essential care.”

“Massachusetts has led the way time and again to reaffirm our commitment to keeping reproductive health care safe and available to all. This legislation will further that promise by protecting patients and providers alike from unwanted tracking services when people are seeking reproductive or gender affirming care,” said Representative Aaron Michlewitz, Chair of the House Committee on Ways & Means (D-Boston). “I want to thank the Speaker for his commitment to this issue, as well as Representative Lipper-Garabedian, and all my House colleagues for their work and dedication to keeping Massachusetts a leader in reproductive rights.”

“To ensure the protections for patients, providers, and their families established by this Legislature truly exist, it is essential that we likewise protect digital footprints of those seeking, receiving, and providing abortion and gender-affirming care," said Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose). "This legislation is the first step in providing that protection at a time when more than twenty state legislatures have banned or severely restricted access to abortion and gender-affirming care. I am immensely grateful for the continued leadership and commitment to protecting reproductive health from Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz in ensuring that Massachusetts remains a beacon of hope and a place of refuge for those seeking compassion, safety, and liberty in their lives.”

Currently, data brokers can sell data tracking the location of cellphone users. Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, news outlets reported that location data firms were selling location information related to patients’ visits to Planned Parenthood facilities, which could then be used to target and harass those individuals and providers. 

This bill seeks to protect the privacy of patients by prohibiting companies from collecting and processing an individual’s reproductive or gender affirming care location information unless it’s for a permissible purpose, such as a response to an emergency service agency, or if the individual was provided with a location privacy policy and subsequently granted consent to such policy. The Attorney General would issue regulations related to this law, such as location privacy policies and consent, and have the authority to enforce it under Chapter 93A.

"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,” said Dominique Lee, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. “Now is the time to strengthen data privacy so that cellphone location data cannot be used to target people traveling to and from our health centers, or to target anyone seeking health care that is protected in our state. We are grateful to Speaker Mariano, Chairman Michlewitz, and House leaders for recognizing the urgency of this moment to make Massachusetts an even safer place for reproductive health care.”

“Thanks to Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz’s leadership, with the passage of today’s bill, the House has made important progress to address the evolving threat to abortion patients and providers,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now. “In the two years post-Dobbs, 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. We are proud that the House understands that abortion patients are not fully protected until their digital footprint is protected, too."

Although abortion remains legal in Massachusetts due to the passage of An Act to Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access (the ROE Act) in 2020, which codified and expanded access to reproductive rights, the Legislature took additional action in 2022 to further protect those rights, and established additional safeguards following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In 2022, the Legislature passed comprehensive legislation to provide legal protections to abortion providers, out-of-state patients, and insurers; to expand access to contraceptives; and to help ensure that women who face grave circumstances after 24 weeks of pregnancy are not forced to leave Massachusetts to access reproductive health care services.

Having passed the House of Representatives 159-0, An Act providing protections for reproductive or gender-affirming care location information now goes to the Senate for its consideration.

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