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Adam Kovacevich| Austin American-Statesman

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, red states including Texas enacted a wave of legislation barring reproductive health care access. Now, as the one-year mark of the Supreme Courts decision nears, Republican state lawmakers are looking to continue their crackdown on reproductive care, this time taking aim at online information, speech and telemedicine.

Once again, the Lone Star State could make national headlines for its groundbreaking restrictions on womens reproductive health.

Texas legislation would force platforms to proactively censor any speech about abortion access or mutual aid funds in order to avoid liability. It would also require Internet providers to block sites that provide information about abortion access anywhere in the U.S. and information on how to order abortion pills by mail which federal law still protects.

And the bill doesnt stop there. As written, HB 2690 could force services to censor direct messages between patients and caregivers on how to obtain safe care. It may also force services to block or censor telemedicine counseling services in which medical professionals advise pregnant people on a variety of reproductive health services, including legal abortions.

Effectively, the bill would keep tens of millions of Texans in the dark about reliable reproductive health information, creating a vacuum to be filled by potentially life-threatening misinformation.

Online searches for information about abortion are most common in states with the strictest abortion laws, and consumers in these states have already become targets for misinformation on the issue. By banning and blocking sites that direct users to real help, Texas bill would leave behind a collection of deceptive fakes, like anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centers that target people in need with phony clinics.

Because the Internet doesnt stop at state lines, Texass HB 2690 would impact access to reproductive health information for Americans across the country. Given the technical and legal burdens imposed by state abortion bans, websites and Internet providers may be forced to block reproductive health information nationwide, rather than state-by-state.

If it were to pass, the fact that HB 2690 will reach beyond state lines may ultimately lead the same court that overturned Roe v. Wade to strike down Texas reproductive health censorship bill.

The First Amendment prohibits lawmakers from barring citizens of another state from disseminating information about an activity that is legal in that state. If a resident in Connecticut wants to blog about how pregnant people can access reproductive care thats legal in Connecticut and under federal law, the U.S. Constitution prohibits Texas from stopping them.

But Texans shouldnt have to wait for the Supreme Court to strike down legislation that was obviously unconstitutional in the first place. Lawmakers should recognize that an abortion-ban-online-censorship bill is a politically toxic non-starter, and move on to tech policy that all voters can get behind, like legislation to crack down on online scams or protect user data.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson, its critical that Texas voters continue speaking up. The harms of Texas abortion ban have come into clear view, and far-right lawmakers have made it plain they arent finished targeting pregnant people with new restrictions unless voters force them to back off. If the public speaks up, theres still hope that legislation wont become law.

Kovacevich is the founder of a tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress and has worked at the intersection of tech and politics for 20 years, leading public policy at Google and Lime.

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Excerpt from:
Opinion: Reproductive health censorship bill threatens the open internet - Austin American-Statesman