Fear mounts that period tracking data can be used to further restrict reproductive freedom
As Ron DeSantis seeks to completely ban abortion, fears are mounting that period tracking data that Florida schools require student-athletes to submit could be subpoenaed and used as evidence against women and girls to further restrict their reproductive freedoms.
“Ron DeSantis has already signed an extreme abortion ban in Florida that includes no exceptions for victims of rape and incest, and his administration wants to go even further by scrapping Florida’s right to privacy. Handing over teenagers’ menstrual history to a third-party software company in Ron DeSantis’s Florida is flat-out dangerous,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Travis Reuther.
Read more:
The Florida Times-Union: Florida asks student-athletes about their periods. Why some find it ‘shocking’ post-Roe
- All female athletes in the state also are asked to report their history of menstrual periods: When they got their first period, how many weeks pass between periods and when they had their last one, to name a few.
- This fall when some districts took the form to a digital platform kept by a third party, parents and doctors began raising red flags. Their concerns have been heightened both by a shifting political landscape criminalizing abortions and scrutinizing transgender athletes and the growing threat to medical privacy in a digital age. All of the forms — whether paper or digital — are subject to subpoena.
- Pediatricians are appalled that sensitive medical information is stored with the school district and that coaches can see it. “I don’t see why (school districts) need that access to that type of information,” said Dr. Michael Haller, a pediatric endocrinologist based in Gainesville. “It sure as hell will give me pause to fill it out with my kid,” he said of his own teenage children.
- This year in Palm Beach County, nearly all athlete registration forms were moved online — meaning the athletes’ reproductive data is now stored by a third party, a software company launched in September 2021 named Aktivate. Broward, Hillsborough and Sarasota counties are also rolling out Aktivate in schools, according to Palm Beach County district officials.
- Abortion rights advocates who stress reproductive privacy in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade worry that women’s menstrual history may be used to prosecute them if they terminate a pregnancy.
- And a vocal contingent of parents want forms to stay offline in the name of their parental rights over their children’s data — which they worry about being leaked or sold.
- “I think we’re all on edge right now,” Haller said. He added that he has “very little reason to have faith in our state leadership” to keep data provided to educational institutions private.
- Menstrual history and patient privacy have been cast in a new light following the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to have an abortion.
- Abortion rights advocates quickly began to share fears that women’s social media messages and period tracking data could be used against them. Those fears materialized in Nebraska this summer when police charged a 41-year-old woman and her teenage daughter with an illegal abortion and burning and burying the daughter’s fetus.
- Police subpoenaed Facebook messages they say showed the teen’s pregnancy was not miscarried as the two first contended: Jessica Burgess told her 17-year-old daughter in a message to take abortion pills that she had obtained to end the teen’s 23-week pregnancy, police say.
- Burgess and her daughter were charged with a felony for removing, concealing or abandoning a body. After investigators reviewed the Facebook messages, the prosecutor added a felony charge of illegally performing an abortion. Both women have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Please wake up Florida residents why would the government want to know someone’s menstrual period? If you are right wingers please vote for a different choice for governor, before your personal rights are eliminated. God forbids if he becomes president. Florida residents please wake up.
You sir have a childs mind. Women in the old USSR use to get pregnant before competition for the hormonal change that made them stronger. Then after the competition they would get an abortion. Historical FACT. I guess you want Drag Queens in our schools and teacher telling kids they can be whatever gender they like? You are for puberty blockers and sex change operations for those yet to go through puberty. That sir is a description of a MONSTER. You are probably for abortion on demand up to gestation. That is ghoulish. I want biological women competing against other biological women not Frankenstein’s.
Mr. Jerret, You win the prize! I have never seen in so few lines so many astonishing leaps of logic in order to accuse another person of just thinking something which that person never said. These leaps allow you to close by saying that you want biological women competitors in sports, not Dr. Frankenstein’s women, an issue probably a million miles away from the question at issue, which is whether we want adolescent girls’ menstrual periods accessible to their coaches and to a Big Brother state. It is very difficult to fille a kind as agile as yours, Sir.
It’s called a sports physical. All states have them and all states keep them in each students file. Just because you’ve never taken the time to read the questions on one is your ignorance. Quit fear mongering.
Exactly!
Are you saying that a physical exam for playing sports requires the female student to report her cycles? This is such an assault on young women. What has happened to privacy??? I can’t believe this information is being tracked. What purpose does having this personal information stored digitally?
This has been going on forever in all states, and I believe this information may be optional. I am 68 years old and and that info had to be filled out by my pediatrician, I believe. I think this author writes with extreme bias.He left out the fact that this is common aim all states and has been going on for many years as part of sport physicals. Terrible article written with agenda!
I agree ☝?
The government by way of the department of education and the FL sports governing board has always required sports physicals. This is not new. As far as privacy and freedom, DeSantis has been standing up for that since covid. You guys had no problem mandating vaccines and requiring the reporting of ppl’s status then. But are ready to go to war over sports physicals. Smh. Most doctors and hospitals keep digital records, the school is just doing the same. This is fearmongering but of course ppl fall for it bc ppl are all emotional and don’t think.
It’s a third party that is collecting the data, not the schools themselves. Do all schools farm out physical information? Do they also report when a males testicals drop?
Hey stupid its called a sport physical. It has existed as long as there have been women’s sports. In addition, it serves another purpose, which has nothing to do with abortion dumb @ss. It is to keep men out of female sports!! Because men who dress like women and want to be a woman are the REAL threat to women, as they rob them of their athletic opportunities such as money, endorsements, and scholarships. So this process PROTECTS women from the last crazy liberal idea that somehow men are women. But guess what? Men can’t menstrate so they can’t compete as a women. Bam. Reality hits so hard.
The same the government wants to know everything else about everyone else. If abortion is a crime in a particular place.Then authorities need a way to know when such a crime has been committed. Your comment appears to be that of a liberal. So… as Sleepy Joe says, Come on man!
I can’t read what you are saying, laws that helps to keep America on the Right path is very necessary, and to keep, woman, a women, a man a men, safety in school’s, sports, public places, laws must be put inforce, girls and boys know what can happen when they let things go to far, so abortions should be a crime, forced into (rape) if reported within a few hours, and removed within a week ( 7 days) should not be a crime, the DNA can be retrieved, and the violater should take the place that the child or child’s would have gotten if a abortions had been performed, NO MERCY.
DeSsntis 2024
Any abortion is illegal in Florida, the way it should be.
We need too require national vasectomy for all men then NO pregnancy would happen. This totally is so sad.
It’s to not too. We women can use birth control. Let’s stop pretending we don’t know how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Rape and incest are the only times not but I would love to know the stats on how many abortions are due to rape and I cost as opposed to just irresponsible behavior.
Absolutely!!!
My comment was a reply to Joan. I detest people who have no right, to control another person’s life ,but insist on doing just that.!!!
I agree Joan. It’s been laid on the fault of the female for questionable pregnancies since the beginning of time. It’s about time the responsibility was put on the man’s head to bear the responsibility for preventing those pregnancies.
??? and you should have your nuts cut off
This is so sad
I don’t understand it
It is a sports physical that is and has been required in all states. It predates Gov. DeSantis. It had nothing to do with him. It is the Dept. Of Ed. I believe the author is highly biased and is trying to spin this into something it’s not for political purposes. Terrible article!!
This is crazy. I say wake up people. Why should your privacy be violated???? Enough is enough.
Did you feel the same for covid mandates and the required reporting of your status? This is fearmongering. All of our medical info is digitized and powered by private companies. This is a sports physical, nothing more and nothing new.
Barbara, this had NOTHING to do with Gov. DeSantis or any previous Govenors in other state! I believe we just read a prejudiced article. Please read comments that explain. I had to do it in NJ years and years ago for women’s softball.
Maybe it is to keep track of illegal abortions .
Killing innocent babies that some wonderful couple would love to adopt.
I know this sounds weird but in Russia the women athletes use to get pregnant before competition because of the hormonal changes makes them stronger. Yes check it out for yourself communist are horrible.
I googled this topic: “female athletes at Florida public high schools aren’t required to report their menstrual history to play sports. Student-athletes in Florida are asked questions about their periods as part of a physical evaluation form, but the students can decline to answer.”
Of course this probably incompetent or lazy author left that part out!!!’ He should be reprimanded for this inflammatory article!!!!
Thank you
This is BS! A violation of privacy! Young women so often at that age don’t even have regular periods. The pill has been successful to help regulate them as well as manage severe menstrual cramping. Just ask the doctors that treat all females, hs athletes and beyond what many go through on a monthly basis. How would you know Governor? I would love to see you wearing a bloody sanitary napkin for a week every month or maybe not….
PLEASE, read above remarks. I believe the author of this article totally represents facts. This has nothing to do with governor DeSantis, and it is not mandatory information.
As many have stated…. ‘sports physicals’.
They have been required for a long time; however, why all the sudden is there a need to make it an actual LAW if everything was running as ‘normal’?