When the Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, the political repercussions that followed were visible and high profile. Fierce ballot fights in Kansas, Ohio and Michigan; the election of a new liberal justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court; court cases to prevent the dissemination of mifepristone; and proposed state legislation to prevent interstate travel have been well-publicized.
What is probably less well-known, is just how much of an impact the overturning of Roe v. Wade will have on health and wellness marketing. Neither federal regulatory agencies nor states have been sitting quietly by in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision; they’ve been making changes.
And the rules around what even counts as health data, and how it can be used, are shifting rapidly. While marketers might make distinctions between health and wellness marketing, the traditional distinctions between the underlying data being used is being very blurred right now. And for health care marketers, it’s now more important than ever to pay attention to how quickly the rules are changing regarding what is and is not protected health data, and how it can and cannot be used.
In the immediate aftermath of Roe, the White House directed regulatory agencies to start assessing what could be done to protect women's health care information or any proxy that could be used as such.