In light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade last spring, ‘An Abortion: Ethics, Privacy and Technology Post-Roe’ seminar was hosted on Jan. 31 by philosophy professor Cynthia Coe to inform students about the current state of reproductive rights in America.

This year is the 50-year anniversary of the original Roe v. Wade, ruled in 1973. According to the American Civil Liberties Union this was the Supreme Court decision that decided abortion bans were unconstitutional. 

Dr. Mathew Altman, Dr. Lauren Nuckols and Dr. David Schwan spoke at the seminar. 

Altman is a professor of philosophy and teaches ethics, applied ethics and philosophy of law. He presented about the ethical and legal background of abortion laws for patients and doctors.

Nuckols is a lecturer in philosophy who teaches the ethics of big data and technology. She summarized what it means to talk about privacy in general, and the different forms of surveillance that may be used post-Roe. 

Schwan is a lecturer in philosophy, and teaches courses in ethics, applied ethics and conducts research in medical ethics. He spoke about moral arguments on both sides of the issue, and how complicated the legal scene is going to get with federal and state laws.

This seminar was held in person and over Zoom, and there were around 37 attendees on Zoom and around 35-40 in person, according to Coe.

The White House released an article in July 2022 saying: “‘Today, fundamental rights — to privacy, autonomy, freedom, and equality — have been denied to millions of women across the country.’It seems like people were interested, as it is a hot topic right now involving human reproductive decisions,” Coe said.

Coe said there were questions asked by students involving privacy which included: ‘Who can track my google searches?’ and ‘who can track my period app and has access to it?’

As Coe spoke about privacy, she told the story of a case last August where someone’s discussion of an abortion procedure wasn’t as private as they thought. 

“A woman used Facebook messages to help her daughter get an abortion,” Coe said. “As those were private and they thought they were safe, the police got a warrant against META (Facebook) and took the messages and used them against them in their case.” This article can be found in the New York Times. 

With technology and data being breached, there are many economic implications on this topic.

To avoid misinformation, Coe said, “check your sources, get multiple sources, be sure to get reliable statistics instead of just going on Twitter to find something that could be false. There is a lot of misinformation in the world.” 

Those at CWU who are in need of reproductive help can reach out to their healthcare provider, Student Wellness Center and Planned Parenthood. If students have questions about ethical concerns, they can reach out to the Diversity and Equity Center (DEC). 

The resources that these centers provide are support groups, private counseling and emergency/after hours crisis (no additional charge to students for Student Wellness Center). They have confidentiallity and medical clinics available. According to Planned Parenthood’s website, they can work with you if you have no money or offer a discount rate for abortion/birth control services, depending on the service and location.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, state laws will continue to protect abortion in Washington. Nine other states will continue to allow abortions and plan to expand access to them. In contrast, 12 states have banned abortion.