Abortion Prepping for the Trump Era

In
contrast, DDF views digital security and bodily autonomy as interconnected, one
supporting the other. That makes the kinds of trainings and resources they
offer—for free online and to organizations—quite
different. “One of the things that’s been really critical for us,” Bertash told
me over Signal messages earlier this month, “is to not fall into the traps that
sometimes can come with being in the broader digital security world, which is
to try and imagine this perfectly private, no-footprint protocol, where you
could do everything possible to make sure that your abortion leaves absolutely
no footprint on the world.” Not only is this not possible, but it also can lead
people to not take very simple steps to reduce the digital footprint of an
abortion. “We forget that it actually is pretty normal for there to be traces
left across our devices and our experiences,” said Bertash. Mitigating the risks
posed by those traces is part of protecting bodily autonomy. 

Devices
and digital tools do not come first in security planning, Bertash advised. “Start
by assessing what’s going on with you and your life. Often we call this threat
modeling and risk modeling.” Can you identify one person you can really trust?
Likewise, can you identify people who might disagree with your actions or pose
risks to you? What security measures you adopt will be shaped by your own
situation. In some recent cases, it was someone’s current or former partner who
reported their abortion to police,
sometimes by obtaining physical access to their phone and screenshotting
private messages. “It’s your right to have chats where [you] work out
logistics,” Bertash emphasized, both before and after an abortion, or
supporting others. People can continue to do so in a less risky way by
using an app like Signal, which encrypts messages and allows users to
automatically set messages to delete after minutes, hours, or weeks.

“I
know it can sound a bit like a broken record when digital security people talk
about Signal,” Bertash said. “I think that having Signal with disappearing
messages on, you know you have this place where you can speak freely and speak
clearly about exactly what you mean to say.” Having these conversations with
those trusted people, “getting that practice at having consent-forward
discussion,” she added, can also help expand your circle of trusted
people. Building a network of people you trust is part of security culture, not
just the tools those people use together.