Team Name
noitroba
Team Members
Sophia Huang Ethan Lee Yaru Luo Austin Zang
Project Description
Our project noitroba (backwards for abortion) falls under the Health Equity Project Track. Our project relates to the theme of Tech for Good because the (very) recent Roe v. Wade overturning by the Supreme Court has dismantled 50 years of legal protection, declaring people no longer have a constitutional right to abortion. Therefore, more than ever, it's essential for people to have access to methods of safe abortion -- not just thinking about the physical labor of abortion, but also the digital safety measures to keep their abortion private and secure.
Our website builds an abortion search prototype with neighborhood safety scores so that users can see (1) where the nearest abortion clinic is, (2) steps to have a safe abortion with information from Planned Parenthood, and (3) how safe the neighborhood surrounding the clinic is. Most importantly, our website counters the safety restriction of zip-code criminalization. The Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade allows some of the most restrictive states to use people’s search histories, location data, messages and other digital information by law enforcement agencies in investigating or prosecuting abortion-related cases. This means that in some zip-codes, continuing to a site with the words "abortion sites near me" is criminalizable. If you are in one of these zip-codes, our VPN will change your IP address so that your activity doesn't leave a digital footprint in a banned state. Instead, your IP address will be marked as appearing in a zip-code where your footprint is not restricted, like 91711, CA.
We mostly used Flask and python, but also used JS, CSS, and HTML. The VPN proved to be the hardest (and most important) part of our backend coding. We also ran into merge conflicts as we learned how to frontend and backend code at the same time. Many of us learned how to code in vscode, flask, and JS for the first time! We are proud of our teamwork and also how we learned to use a VPN from scratch.
Considering the ethics of our project, we intend for this to be used for good. However, we are promoting the use of VPNs, so also note the possibilities for misuse of VPNs that may provide safety hazards if misused. Therefore, we note it’s important to choose a VPN that doesn’t keep track of what you’re doing - commonly called a no-logs VPN. Most no-logs VPNs cost a few dollars a month, but there are two free options: ProtonVPN’s free tier, and Tunnelbear’s limited free tier. Furthermore, although our website is meant to show where the nearest abortion clinics are and how safe the surrounding neighborhood is so that a user can get there safely without harassment, we are aware of the possibility for people to use this for harm to search for a nearby clinic and use these destinations as places to harass folks seeking abortion. Finally, in following our values of data security, we worked very hard to ensure we are not storing any user data on our own end.
Purpose
We were tackling the problem of digital security-related threats (as well as access) with the case of abortion. In some states, it is criminalizable just to browse sites that give you abortion information. However, sometimes, access to information is just as important as implementing the information itself. Therefore, we believe it is essential for everyone to have access to this information without zip code repercussions, and we created our project.
In the future, we hope to add up-to-date information about how abortion laws change in certain states and also extending the information under the "Get Care" tab to not only include clinics but also information about nearby abortion pills. Furthermore, we hope to include more information about how to survive the mental health tolls and impacts of abortion.
How it works
Before even entering the website, you need to submit your zip code information. We have included an explanatory button explaining why and the fact that this data is not stored. By doing so, we can check that you are in a safe location to be browsing abortion information (like in California). If you are not in a safe location to be browsing abortion information (like in Texas), then our VPN kicks in and will notify you that your IP address is being changed to that of a zip code without abortion restrictions like California.
Afterwards, you can look for abortion clinics, look at its neighborhood's safety, and find more information about ways to help with the fight for abortion rights. We used Planned Parenthood data (with rights attributed on the site) for information on how to help as well as learning about how to have a safe abortion. We also used the Google Maps API to find nearby clinics given a zip code query, and we used the Amadeus API to find how safe the neighborhood of the clinics are. Finally, we also used Bootstrap for a ton of the Frontend, including the collapsible cards.
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