Google announces massive abortion move as Roe v Wade fallout grows

As America continues to reel from the Supreme Court’s shock abortion decision, Google has made a gamechanging announcement.

As the US erupts over abortion rights, tech juggernaut Google has announced a huge change designed to protect millions of users.

Last week, the world was stunned when the US Supreme Court overturned a landmark legal decision which granted citizens the constitutional right to access abortions.

Known as Roe v Wade, the ruling had protected women since 1973, until it was sensationally overturned last Friday US time.

It is now up to each individual state to determine whether women can have legal abortions, with many preparing to ban the procedure, meaning tens of millions of American women have now lost their right to access abortion services.

The change has sent shockwaves across the nation, resulting in passionate protests.

Protests are also planned in Australia this weekend in a show of solidarity.

Google has made a huge abortion announcement. Picture: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD/AFP

Countless high profile personalities have slammed the Supreme Court’s move, with a string of companies also vowing to support customers and staff access abortions, including Google, which on Friday announced it would delete users’ location history when they visit abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters and other places where privacy is sought.

“If our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit,” Jen Fitzpatrick, a senior vice president at Google, wrote in a blog post.

“This change will take effect in the coming weeks.”

Ms Fitzpatrick also stressed that the company takes people’s data privacy seriously.

“We take into account the privacy and security expectations of people using our products, and we notify people when we comply with government demands,” she said.

That led a group of top Democratic politicians in May to send a letter to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, asking him to stop collecting smartphone location data lest it become “a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care”.

Mass protests have been held in the US. Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP

Thousands participated in the Solidarity Abortion Rights Rally in Adelaide. Picture: Brenton Edwards

The issue of privacy and reproductive rights have continuously made headlines since Roe v Wade was overturned.

Soon after Roe v Wade was overturned, advocates shared warnings that a woman’s search history, location data and period tracking apps could be used by authorities to find out if she is pregnant, if she is considering abortion and if she goes through with the abortion.

In a now-viral Twitter post, US author Jessica Khoury warned her followers. “Delete your period tracking apps today,” she wrote.

The six-word tweet resonated with hundreds of thousands of people, with many wading into the comments section to express their horror that it has come to this point.

Although a period tracking app holds seemingly inconsequential information about its users, it is now potentially very dangerous in the wrong hands.

Customers tell the app what day their period starts and stops, allowing it to predict when it will come next, when they’ll be most fertile and if their period is late — or if they’ve missed their period altogether.

When abortions become a criminal act, this kind of information would be very damning for women who become pregnant and seek an abortion.

– with AFP and Alex Turner-Cohen

Originally published as Google announces massive abortion move as Roe v Wade fallout grows