Police in the United Kingdom are using data from period tracking apps and mass spectrometry tests conducted on blood, placenta, and urine to investigate patients who have had “unexplained” miscarriages.

Though abortion is legal in the UK, there are TRAP laws in place requiring certain conditions to be met first, paramount of which is that two separate doctors need to agree that the patient meets the criteria of the 1967 Abortion Act before any treatment can go ahead. Self-managed abortion is a criminal offense with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the UK, as is any abortion performed after the pregnancy has progressed passed 23 weeks and six days, unless the patient is at risk of serious physical harm or death, or the fetus has severe developmental anomalies.

    • Arrakis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Shame it was written for an old ass version of Android or I’d happily switch.

      E: Idk why this is getting downvoted. I can’t install it from the Play Store because the app hasn’t been updated. Why is that controversial? 😅

      • littlewonder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Maybe their GitLab has the latest version? Sometimes open source apps will release first on their own repo before it gets pushed to external app repos.

        • Arrakis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve always been a bit wary of apps which haven’t been released to the app store (maybe I’m overly paranoid!), so I’m just gonna stick with my crappy spreadsheet for now instead, until it gets updated. Appreciate the suggestion though :)

  • HowMany@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Amazing how many governments are interested in making sure babies happen - to the point of sounding alarms.

    What do they know that they’re not telling? Is the pollution so bad that we’ve wiped ourselves out biologically?

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The birth rate is dropping almost everywhere and that’s bad for capitalism

        • LavaPlanet@lemmy.world
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          They talk about this as if it’s mysterious. Not actually the fact that the working world is still based on one parent works and the other stays at home (offering their life in sacrifice to the system and providing the next generation for free, but I digress) but both parents HAVE to work to survive because the cost of living is through the roof. Child care costs too much, almost entirely wiping out one parents wage. And they could choose to offer incentives or address the reasons for the low birth rate, they know the reasons. But no, fear, criminalisation, those work better, as tools, to keep the chattel in line.

      • HowMany@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        They allowed a human grade extinction event and now they’re got second thoughts? How… big brained monkey that sounds.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Self abortion can kill you. British law is made to protect you from yourself. Go to the doctor and everything will be fine. And free. And without you bleeding to death in your flat.

    • Arrakis@lemmy.world
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      Women’s reproductive rights are a complex issue. On the one hand there’s killing babies; on the other there’s giving women a choice.

      Tough call.

      E: some of the PMs I’m getting for repeating this are absolute gold.

      E2: we’re all going to hell

  • SuddenlyBlowGreen@lemmy.world
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    And the UK goverment really REALLY wants to have backdoors put into every kind on encryption.

    Well, I’m sure the two aren’t related.

    • Justfollowingorders1@lemmy.ml
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      Sadly, I’m genuinely shocked at how many people have said things like “I got nothing to hide” when it comes to even basic intrusion of privacy by governments. It’s that kind of thinking that makes authorities think such actions like this should be tolerated.

  • Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml
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    Soon, tampons will have wifi so they can send your data to the govt, and then they’ll know you’re pregnant before you even do.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    Wow, that’s not maliciously intrusive at all. Big Brother is hard at work over in jolly old fuck that noise.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    I heard a good news article on unexplained miscarriages on NPR last week.

    There’s a correlation between having a healthy baby and the volume of the placenta. Small placentas result in loss.

    Which makes sense, the placenta is passing all the oxygen and nutrients to the baby, if it fails to size up, the baby is starved of nutrients and… well…

    The doctor who invented the process to measure placental volume is getting the usual pushback from established medicine though. :(

    Worth a listen if you have time:

    https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/placenta-pregnancy-loss/

    • DevCat@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I am a CIS male and run the Flo app just to mess with their stats and tracking. You wouldn’t believe how often my period is off!

      • sbexpert@lemmy.world
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        I’ve never used an app to track, but as a teen my periods were so inconsistent that they would probably think I was pregnant and miscarrying every 3 months. There were times I didn’t bleed for 3 months then bled for 2, for years. This led me to starting birth control years before I ever had sex for the first time. I definitely would have been on some watchlist if that took place today.

        Luckily, after years of trying to stop birth control (and going right back into that weird bleeding cycle every time! >:[ wtf body) my new doctor agreed to do a hysterectomy! It was just recently done, so I’m still recovering, but I’m so fucking happy I never have to deal with periods and bc pills ever again!

        Sorry for the novel lol

      • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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        Same! I had a pregnancy scare a few weeks ago, but I’m back on my period again with my nonexistent uterus. Phew.

        • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
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          I bled 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21st of October. I plan on doing it backwards this month. My cup and non-existent uterus runneth over. I’m thinking of having a pregnancy scare next month sometime, just in time for the holidays.

  • misery mansion@lemmy.world
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    100% nonsense if you apply some logic. British police have 0 time or budget to be investigating this. If someone stole my wallet while I was standing in front of a police officer they wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it

    By all means don’t use software that shares your personal information with anyone but also don’t waste time getting het up by this article