The Washington PostThe Washington Post

Texts, web searches about abortion have been used to prosecute women

By Cat Zakrzewski, Claire Parker, Pranshu Verma

03 Jul 2022 · 6 min read

Editor's Note

A WaPo story highlighting how the overturning of Roe v Wade could mean that people searching for abortion-related information online or exchanging texts with friends should be on high-alert.

Paramedics arrived at Latice Fisher's Mississippi home to find a baby in the toilet, lifeless and blue, the umbilical cord still attached. The child - roughly six pounds and more than 35 weeks along - was rushed to the hospital, where it was pronounced dead.

Fisher, a mother of three, told paramedics she had not known she was pregnant. But she later admitted to a nurse that she had known about the pregnancy. And after she voluntarily surrendered her iPhone to police, investigators discovered that Fisher, a former police dispatcher, had searched for how to "buy Misopristol Abortion Pill Online" 10 days earlier.

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