Embryonic Journey

 I got an email yesterday from Planned Parenthood.

A data broker company allegedly tracked people's visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states, including Massachusetts, and provided that data to inform one of the nation's largest anti-abortion ad campaigns, according to new revelations from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). (source) 

This is horrific. Worse yet the data broker schmucks sell the info to anyone with a credit card.

• Got a violent, crazy ex? They can find you easy.

• Are you working in intelligence? Are you an elected official, a military employee, a cop or a science researcher? Yeah, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other assorted baddies can easily pick up your location data and track you.

• Your employer can buy this and see all that you do when you’re off the clock.

There are no state or federal laws prohibiting this. There fucking well should be!

Here in Massachusetts there’s a bill making a slow path through the legislature. The Location Shield Act (House Bill 357) would ban the sale of cell phone location information. The ACLU has an info page up about this as well as a message that can be sent to my State Reps and Senators. 

Are the elected officials in your state/territory doing anything to protect your info? Write them. Ask them if they give a good goddamn about the digital privacy of their voters.

The shield would apply to any individual within the state, whether they are residents or not. That’s a critical component, since Massachusetts is a safe haven state for both those seeking an abortion and those receiving gender-affirming care. Out-of-state patients who travel to Massachusetts for care sometimes unwittingly leave digital footprints that can be used against them, since HIPAA medical privacy laws do not apply to apps.

Politicians and law-enforcement officials would not be able to track user data once someone crosses over the Massachusetts state line without a warrant or unless in response to a reported imminent threat to human life. (source) 

Embryos

In other reproduction news—Alabama courts have unscientifically decided that a pre-embryo blastocyst is a child. (a blastocyst is a ball of cells that forms early in a pregnancy, about five to six days after a sperm fertilizes an egg. It implants in your uterine wall, eventually becoming an embryo) 

Of course I have questions.

• If the power goes out at the place where these frozen cell balls are stored (and they defrost) who gets prison time (or a death sentence) for killing them?
  

• If the cell balls remain frozen for 16 years, can they get a driver's license?

• If they’re still on ice at 18, can they vote?

• If a frozen fertilized egg is a child can you claim it as a deduction on your taxes?

• Since frozen pre-embryos don’t yet have a gender, which bathroom should the host body use to avoid being beaten to death?

• If a fertilized egg is a child, how many hours can it work per week in a meat packing plant?

• If you’re driving with a cooler full of these child-cicles can you use the car pool lane?

An embryo, by the by, doesn’t become a fetus until the end of the eighth week after fertilization. Also, FYI, a fetus is not a child.

Embryonic Journey—Jorma Kaukonen