'I'm terrified for women's future amid new police guidance on pregnancy loss'
Feminist speaker and activist Eliza Hatch shares her fears over the UK police's "invasive" guidance, which allows them to search women's phones in the case of suspected illegal abortion
In news that sounds like it's come straight out of The Handmaid's Tale, the police have released new guidance that allows them to search your phone for period tracker apps in event of an unexpected pregnancy loss suspected to be abortion. Feminist speaker Eliza Hatch says she's now 'terrified' over what this means for women and people of marginalised genders.
Eliza is an award-winning feminist photographer, speaker and educator. In 2017, she founded Cheer Up Luv, an internationally recognised photo and interview series which retells accounts of street harassment. Then in 2019, she co-founded the Hysteria Collective, which promotes arts and activism by people of marginalised genders.
Speaking to The Mirror, Eliza says: 'I'm terrified for the future of women and people of marginalised genders rights in this country generally, and more specifically our bodily autonomy, healthcare and access to safe, legal and free abortions.'
The guidance, released by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) in January, states that women who experience a sudden unexpected pregnancy loss, such as stillbirth or miscarriage, can have their homes searched and their phones seized if under investigation for a suspected illegal abortion.
The NPCC said that investigators looking into the causes of stillbirth and miscarriage should look at digital devices to 'establish a woman's knowledge and intention in relation to the pregnancy' – which includes searching fertility and period tracking apps.
In 1967, the Abortion Act was introduced to the UK, and allowed women to legally terminate a pregnancy up to 28 weeks with the certification of two doctors. In 1990, the limit was changed to 24 weeks.
Eliza adds: 'This new police guidance is not only terrifying, it follows an incredibly invasive pattern of policing and criminalising of women's bodies, fuelled by influential anti-abortion groups funded by powerful religious organisations in the US. If we don't act now, we will follow in the US's footsteps of the far-right political overturn of our hard won rights.'
The US has seen a sharp swing to far right politics over recent years. In June 2022, the Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, which gave US women the constitutional right to abortion. Since then, 12 states have enacted near-total abortion bans, while four states have banned abortion past around six weeks of pregnancy.
One of the most shocking outcomes of this has been the case of Adriana Smith, a braindead woman who is being forced to carry a baby to life due to Georgia's abortion laws, which bans termination after six weeks.
As dystopian as the situation sounds, Eliza warns that, in many respects, UK abortion rights can be more constrictive. She says: 'We do not have the luxury of being complacent, of saying, 'oh well at least it's not as bad as the US'.'
Providing an abortion in the UK carries a life sentence, due to what Eliza describes as a 'cruel, outdated Victorian law'. This is because it falls under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which carries a maximum life sentence.
Eliza urges people to put pressure on the government, write to MPs and to 'lobby for our hard earned bodily autonomy as vocally and aggressively as anti-abortion groups who campaign against our hard won rights.' Otherwise, she fears that 'we are in serious danger of going in the same direction as a post Roe v Wade overturned America.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
A dystopian surveillance fear has become reality in Texas
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of 'lo and behold, the dystopian thing that women and activists warned would happen ends up happening'. This time the issue is automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which capture (no prizes for guessing!) license plate data and allow law enforcement to build a picture of where a particular vehicle has been. There's no opting out of being tracked: if you drive, you should simply assume that these cameras, which are sometimes hidden in objects like traffic cones, are logging your movements. And you should assume that this license plate data can be combined with other surveillance data to paint a very detailed picture of your life. Privacy only exists for our billionaire overlords these days. The rest of us are just data points. There are obviously plenty of legitimate uses to ALPRs. Their proponents will wax lyrical about how they can help solve carjackings and kidnappings. But, like all technology, they are ripe for abuse. They are particularly ripe for abuse in an increasingly authoritarian US, full of lawmakers who want to control women's bodies. Back in 2022, a few months after Roe v Wade was overturned, the Guardian published a piece on ALPRs warning that 'an expanding web of license plate readers could be 'weaponized' against abortion'. It focused on a company called Flock, one of the big players in this space, which promises a 'holistic solution to crime'. Flock's technology could be used to 'criminalize people seeking reproductive health and further erode people's ability to move about their daily lives free from being tracked and traced', one expert told the Guardian at the time. Another civil rights expert warned that Flock, which has stated that it is happy to provide technology to help enact whatever laws have been passed, 'illustrates how surveillance isn't actually about benefiting society or protecting people – it's about enforcing the political goals of those in power'. Unfortunately, all these experts have been proved right. This week 404 Media reported that a Texas police officer used Flock to perform a nationwide search of more than 83,000 ALPR cameras while looking for a woman who had had an abortion. Abortion is almost entirely illegal in Texas but law enforcement reportedly looked at cameras in states such as Washington and Illinois where abortion is legal. Anti-abortion voices love to argue that they're not trying to control women, they're trying to protect women. Funnily enough this same talking point came up in this case. Sheriff Adam King of Johnson county, Texas, told 404 Media that the woman had self-administered the abortion 'and her family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital.' He added: 'We weren't trying to block her from leaving the state or whatever to get an abortion. It was about her safety.' Perhaps this was true in this case. Many of the details are still unclear so it's hard to tell. But even if this was purely benevolent surveillance, you can certainly see where all this is headed. 'This incident is undeniably a harbinger of more AI-enabled reproductive surveillance and investigations to come,' Ashley Emery, senior policy analyst in reproductive health and rights at the National Partnership for Women & Families, told 404 Media. 'Especially for women of color who are already over-surveilled and over-policed, the stakes couldn't be higher.' 'Texas is the land of freedom,' Governor Greg Abbott recently proclaimed. If you're a woman in Texas, however, 'freedom' seems to have quite a strange definition. Not only are you not allowed freedom over your reproductive decisions, a number of Texas city councils (some of which are composed entirely of male lawmakers) have been trying to pass travel bans that would stop Texans from driving to abortion appointments in other states. Abortion bans, attempted travel bans, and a network of surveillance technology that can be used to enforce these bans: this is what 'freedom' for women in Texas looks like. In the weeks and months after the 2023 Lahaina fire, 'one in six female fire survivors surveyed felt forced to engage in sexual acts in exchange for basic necessities such as food, clothing and housing', reports Nina Lakhani. 'Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable,' Médecins Sans Frontières states in a horrifying update on the crisis. 'While Saudi Arabia celebrates being awarded the Fifa men's World Cup and meticulously promotes itself on the global stage as reformed, women who have dared to publicly call for more rights and freedoms have faced house arrest, jail and exile,' the Guardian reports. Saudi Arabia, it should be noted, has had a lot of help promoting itself as 'reformed' by the US media, which has run numerous puff pieces on Mohammed bin Salman – also known as the 'bone saw' prince. She was watering flowers when she was killed in an airstrike. The charred bodies of seven of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar's 10 children arrived at her hospital. Two others, including a seven-month-old, remain missing, presumably under the rubble. Despite pretending to be outraged about the slaughter in Gaza, the UK has sent its trade envoy to Israel to boost commercial links. Meanwhile US lawmakers are cheering the killing on. The percentage of mothers reporting 'excellent' mental health dropped from 38% in 2016 to 26% in 2023. This decline was observed across nearly every socioeconomic subgroup examined. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion Pretty sure Pauline Al Said, who has been fined for stealing more than £1,000-worth of Le Creuset cookware, steaks, wine and gin, has taken a page out of the high-society scammer Anna Delvey's book. If you can grift your way to viral fame and a Netflix series then crime really does pay! (This should not be read as encouragement to do crime.) The lyrics include the following: 'Kathryn Bromwich from the Guardian states that Trans people make up roughly 0.5% of the UK population and are twice as likely to be victims of crime than cis people.' Nash told Attitude that she came out with the song because of JK Rowling's anti-trans activism. 'I just wanted it to be on record, in music history and in feminist history, for there to be somebody else in culture that is saying that I just don't believe that's feminism,' Nash told Attitude. The Euphoria actor, who has spoken out about being objectified by fans, is now selling soap made with her used bathwater. Un-brie-lievable. Here you go! You're welcome. Doug the Pug, a canine influencer with millions of followers, has received an honorary degree from the University of New Haven in Connecticut in 'Furensic Science'. He's already got an unofficial dogtorate in cuteness. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Metro
13 hours ago
- Metro
At least 13 newborns trafficked abroad to 'infertile' parents for £510,000
Eight doctors have been arrested for orchestrating a black-market baby ring in Russia, in a case disturbingly reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale. As many as 13 newborns were sold to foreign couples – but the true scale is alleged to be much higher. The medics – including three chief physicians – fabricated medical records to claim the 'buyers' were infertile, then used reproductive technologies to grow embryos, oversee births, and ultimately send the children abroad. They are believed to have earned £510,000 from the sinister baby-selling scam, according to the state prosecutors in the far-east Primorsky region. The scandal centres on multiple private clinics in the city of Vladivostok, and it involved six women and two men – doctors, chief physicians, and the owner of a chain of private clinics. A statement from Russian authorities said: 'The group of doctors illegally issued medical documentation containing knowingly false information about the infertility of buyers and genetic parents. More Trending 'Using assisted reproductive technologies under the guise of infertility treatment, the defendants carried out actions to cultivate embryos and arrange the subsequent birth of children for the purpose of their sale and movement abroad.' The illegal sales happened between 2018 and 2020 but have only come to light now. It is as yet unclear if Russia will seek to repatriate the illegally sold children – now aged between around five and seven. The defendants in the case have not been named. They face up to 15 years in jail for alleged child trafficking, according to prosecutors. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Russian court bans memes portraying Putin as modern-day Hitler MORE: Ex-CIA chief reveals where in Europe he thinks Putin will invade next MORE: Putin 'war hero' behind Mariupol strikes killed in 'suicide bombing' in Russia
South Wales Argus
2 days ago
- South Wales Argus
Could it be possible that we truly need these immigrants
Could it be possible that we truly need these immigrants, these strangers? Are we in an after-the-war situation with the death of so many men, could our 1967 Abortion Act, with 11 million lost children, a war on the unborn, be the real reason why we are allowing such great numbers of immigrants into the UK? It is common knowledge that we are an ageing top heavy population in the UK and Europe, are we now pretending that a bill to legalise assisted suicide is really for the benefit of the old, the sick and terminally ill people, or is it that we can no longer, without the support of a younger generation, afford the huge national health bill. Yours faithfully, Paul Botto
