The Data We Don’t Collect Is Killing Women

Sydney Saubestre, senior policy analyst for New America’s Open Technology Institute, wrote an op-ed published by Ms. on the intentionality behind the U.S. government’s failure to track how many women have died due to state-level reproductive healthcare restrictions, which were bolstered by the overturn of Roe v. Wade. In this piece, Saubestre explains how the resulting lack of data on the consequences of this decision continues to perpetuate preventable deaths.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, at least 10 women have died as a direct result of their inability to access healthcare. But this number is only a guess, because there’s no single place that records and tracks these tragedies. And that’s not just an oversight—it’s a choice.

As a data expert who used to work with survivors of sexual violence, I have seen how failures to measure a problem make it easier for those in power to keep harming people without accountability. Data is power, and the legislators—mostly men—driving these decisions don’t want us to see the true impact. We owe it to the women and others affected to make that impact visible.