New Virginia law prevents law enforcement from accessing period tracker data

The new law went into effect July 1 in an important victory in the ongoing battle to defend reproductive rights in Virginia and across the country.

A new law championed by Democrats in Virginia will protect the privacy of people who use smartphone apps to keep track of their periods. 

Since July 1, the new state law has prohibited law enforcement from searching and seizing menstrual health data. Sponsors of the legislation, state Sen. Barbara Favola of Arlington and state Del. Vivian Watts of Fairfax County, said the legal protection is needed as conservatives across the country ramp up their crackdown on reproductive rights in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

Nearly a third of women in the US use an app to track their menstrual cycles, and it’s common for people to want to change the timing of when they get their periods. Advocates feared that such data could be used to accuse women of having abortions.  

“That change in her menstrual cycle could be misinterpreted as for some reason her menstrual cycle stopped, got delayed, therefore she must have had an early-term abortion,” Watts said in an interview with Dogwood. “That is the issue that is at stake as far as protecting this kind of what I’m going to call harassment on your personal decisions.” 

Advocates feared period tracker data could be used to enforce a possible national abortion ban, a retrograde policy once supported by Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance. With both chambers of Congress in play and a competitive presidential race this fall, defenders of reproductive rights need to be vigilant when they head to the polls, said Favola. 

“If there is a Republican US House, Republican Senate, and if Trump wins, they will have a trifecta and they will in fact have the ability to pass an abortion ban,” Favola said in an interview with Dogwood. “I don’t think for a minute that they’re not going to try.” 

Gov. Glenn Youngkin supported the period tracker data legislation this year, but that was not the case a year ago when his administration raised concerns about a similar measure that ultimately died in Virginia’s House of Delegates. The Youngkin administration’s opposition to the bill in 2023 made headlines across the country and was mocked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It was a bad look that may have paved the way for Youngking getting on board with the legislation this year. 

“The Republicans have all these conflicting principles – small government, individual privacy, individual responsibility,” Favola said. “On the other hand, if they want to apply some cultural policy, all the principles I just said go out the door and they’re in your face, in your pocketbook, in your bedroom.” 

Having succeeded in protecting menstrual health data in Virginia, state advocates and lawmakers are gearing up for a bigger fight in the years to come: a constitutional amendment protecting people’s right to an abortion. 

Amendments to Virginia’s constitution must pass with a majority in both state legislative chambers in two different General Assembly sessions and then be approved by a majority of voters in a statewide referendum. Reproductive rights advocates hope to clear the first hurdle in the 2025 General Assembly session and have the amendment added to the Virginia constitution in 2026. 

People who took reproductive rights for granted before the US Supreme Court took away the constitutional right to an abortion with the overturning of Roe are fired up to make sure their rights are not further eroded, said Del. Marcia “Cia” Price of Newport News in an interview with Dogwood. 

“We really have to remember that these rights are still young,” Price said. “They need to be protected.” 

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