Michigan Democrats shift to protect reproductive health data before GOP takes control of House

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Democrats are pushing this month to pass legislation they declare will enhance reproductive health worry, in particular the safety of digital health data, ahead of Republicans taking over the state House in 2025.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is backing a invoice designed to protect reproductive health data including data logged on menstrual pattern tracking apps. Similar legislation that has passed in other states is aimed at keeping the data from being used to target people seeking abortions.

“This feels like a very urgent require for us to get this done while we have a window in Michigan with the Democratic majority for the next few weeks,” said state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, sponsor of the digital privacy invoice.

The rush is a reaction to expectations that it will be harder to pass the reproductive health worry policies Democrats favor after Republicans receive control of the state House in January. Democrats kept control of the state Senate in the November election.

Republicans have opposed the digital privacy invoice over a section they declare will stifle anti-abortion advertising.

Other reproductive health bills to be considered during the December session that began Tuesday include a package on Black maternal health and an expansion of access to birth control.

After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, some women in states with strict abortion bans began to worry that their health information could be used to track their reproductive position. Apps that track menstrual cycles became a major focus point.

Abortion is constitutionally protected in Michigan. But McMorrow does not depend President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign commitment to veto any feasible national abortion ban nor his campaign’s efforts to distance itself from assignment 2025, which proposed a rollback on abortion and contraception access.

Period tracking apps allow women to receive detailed day-by-day notes about their health, from how heavy their period flow is to additional symptoms such as cramping. They can log pregnancies and miscarriages.

“These tools are really valuable,” McMorrow said. “I just desire to make sure that the guardrails are there when indications from the incoming federal administration is they would potentially weaponize the data in a way that is very risky.”

Federal law bars medical providers from sharing health data without a patient’s consent but doesn’t prevent digital tech companies from tracking menstrual cycles or an person’s location and selling it to data brokers. Legislation for federal bans have never gained momentum, largely because of opposition from the tech industry.

How the legislation works varies from state to state. Washington state has digital privacy law that broadly covers all health-related data while Virginia has a law that explicitly prohibits the issuance of search warrants, subpoenas or court orders for electronic or digital menstrual health data.

Michigan’s proposal would require businesses or organizations to use reproductive health data only for the services it provides, and consumers must be informed of how the data is being used. In order to sell that data, an entity would require explicit, signed consent from the buyer. Consumers would also have the alternative to opt out from their data being sold at any period.

It would also regulate retailers, who often compile data to target consumers with advertisements, and the use of geofencing, which allows marketers to target consumers with ads based on their location.

The invoice would prohibit identifying who is receiving reproductive health worry by using location information and targeting them with advertisements. This would apply to people visiting fertility or abortion clinics.

The geofencing provision of the invoice has drawn objection from anti-abortion advocates. Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for correct to Life of Michigan, said in committee testimony Tuesday that the invoice would prevent women visiting an abortion clinic from being reached by anti-abortion ads.

“This isn’t safeguarding women’s reproductive health data,” she said. “It is limiting the options presented to women.”

Republican Sen. John Damoose, who voted against the invoice in committee, believes the geofencing provision encroaches on liberty of talk and religion by preventing anti-abortion advertising.

The invoice was voted out of committee Tuesday on event lines and advanced Thursday toward a final vote in the Senate chamber.

Kimya Forouzan, capital state policy director at the Guttmacher Institute, expects the topic to be taken up by other state legislatures next year. Guttmacher, which supports abortion rights, tracks reproductive health trends.

Over the history two years, Michigan Democrats have passed bills repealing a number of anti-abortion laws, including the state’s 1931 ban, and adding surrogacy protections to state law. Lawmakers are considering a number of others related to reproductive health this month.

A throng of bills concentrated on improving maternal health for Black women would make a doula scholarship, among other measures. The Senate voted its package on the topic through to the House on Tuesday.

Rep. Jaime Churches, a Democrat from the downriver area of Detroit who lost her seat in November, is trying to gain traction for two bills that would require insurance to cover fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination.

Three bills seeking to expand access to birth control through insurance have passed the state House. McMorrow also introduced a series of bills aimed at providing long-lasting reversible contraception, such an implants or intrauterine devices, to patients who have given birth before they are discharged from a hospital.

There is competition among Democrats for period during this short, lame duck session. Advocates for economic advancement, infrastructure and gun control measures are among the many looking to push through bills in the month that is left. Major contention over recent paid ill leave and minimum wage requirements is likely to garner attention. Those discussions could reduce the amount of period available to debate reproductive health measures.

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