NEW YORK — While counseling clients in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Weber Shandwick leaders believed the agency should take its own initiative in addressing the 2022 ruling, which took away women’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Led by the late Angela Mears, who was Weber’s New York chief creative officer at the time, the team decided to help women protect their digital privacy after seeing “an increase of concern and risk for women” looking for reproductive health information and services online. 

“There seemed to be a fairly low awareness of keeping that information private,” said Pam Jenkins, the agency’s chief public health officer. Developing tools supporting women in doing so made sense on a number of levels “in what seemed to be an increasingly challenging time,” she said.

That effort came to fruition on June 24, the second anniversary of Dobbs, when Weber Shandwick rolled out the Vagina Privacy Network, an online portal built in partnership with MSI Reproductive Choices and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help women safely search for abortion care or reproductive health information online without leaving a digital trail.

The VPN includes a step-by-step guide for identity protection online, including links to free, secure web browsers. It's all part of a digital toolkit designed to help women (and others) easily secure their online privacy, which is increasingly important, particularly in states with abortion restrictions.

“We were able to see what was  happening in a number of states and there were stories of women who were aware that their digital footprint was being used at great personal risk,” Jenkins said noting that healthcare providers have similar concerns.

In turn, last month’s VPN rollout included activations in three states where abortion rights are banned (Indiana, Tennessee) or severely restricted (Georgia). VPN-branded burner phones directing to a recording of the digital privacy toolkit were distributed to the public at marches to mark the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, and to grassroots partners. Billboards were erected in state capitals to make sure legislators got the message, too.

Jenkins said Weber Shandwick does, and will continue, to support VPN moving forward, tapping influencers and trusted female thought leaders to drive awareness of the site.

“It’s sort of a new day post-Roe vs Wade and while it’s a different situation in every state, the concern is that this could put providers and patients at risk,” Jenkins said.

“At the end of the day, this is about one integral thing: protecting your digital footprint,” she said.

— Photo courtesy of Weber Shandwick