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 whoreported their abortion to police, sometimes by obtaining physical access to their phone and screenshotting private messages. “It’s your right to have chats where 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.