Intersectionality in Health Technologies: Safeguarding Reproductive Rights

Balfour, Lindsay

Gender-based violence (GBV) is on the rise globally, including forms of control and coercion over the reproductive body. Such forms of violence are increasingly enabled by digital means, and by the rise of intimate digital health applications (known as “FemTech”). This includes mobile apps such as menstruation, pregnancy and ovulation trackers, but also tele-abortion and digitally-assisted reproductive care networks. As such, reproductive care finds itself at the intersection of technology and justice, particularly as the phenomenon of digital health raises significant concerns for how intimate data is often compromised (Privacy International, 2018; Lupton, 2016; Rosas, 2019; Heywood, 2020; Balfour, 2023, UK Information Commissioner, 2024) and can be weaponised as a form of reproductive violence or coercion, particularly in a Post-Roe global context.

Such violence has disproportionate effect for those marginalised by race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability, and who already suffer in inequitable healthcare systems that do not meet their needs. This was especially the case during the pandemic where vulnerable people could not access regular healthcare providers but were forced to “shelter-in-place” with abusive, violent, or unsupportive partners. Authorities in the UK, for instance, recorded 206,492 intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents between March and June 2020, a 9% increase compared with the same period in 2019 (Stripe, 2020). Increasingly, this violence is wrought through digital health technologies, making data privacy and surveillance a critical new consideration for public health. Moreover, as Jewkes and Dartnall (2019) argue, there is need for far more investigation into the intersectionality of gendered violence and its potential uptake as an aspect of women’s digital health (i.e. ‘FemTech’).

Ultimately, this paper will explore the risks and rewards of digital health tools and offer suggestions for the safeguarding of intersectional reproductive justice.