The post Roe political landscape demands a morality of caution for women’s health research (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED The recent Dobbs decision and current political landscape surrounding abortion rights in the United States has the potential to dramatically disrupt progress in women’s health research. The typical safeguards to ensure confidentiality and privacy of research participants may not hold against criminal investigations surrounding suspected pregnancy terminations. This puts women participating in health research that collects sensitive reproductive information at an increased risk of having this information being used against them by some states or other individuals. There are additional risks to women participating in women’s digital health research studies involving the use of wearable devices capable of tracking physiological measures such as body temperature and heart rate as these have shown promise for tracking conception and could be used to identify pregnancy termination signatures. There are strategies researchers can take to protect the safety of female participants in reproductive health research, while also maintaining integrity of research methods. Here, we discuss potential strategies, and invite others to join this discussion so as not let the current political landscape impede progress in women’s health research, while also protecting research participants.