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Dear Friend,
On Monday, Lt. Gov Gilchrist and I issued a proclamation declaring this week as Women?s Health Week in Michigan.
Healthy women are key to healthy communities and serve as the foundation of our families. As governor, I have taken action to protect and improve women?s health, driving positive outcomes for all Michiganders.
Many factors can impact women's health. Chronic health conditions, systemic inequities, and environmental conditions can all impact health and quality of life. Access to healthy foods, safe spaces for physical activity, and affordable health care can all help individuals improve their health and quality of life.
During Women?s Health Week, we join with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as well as external partners such as the Michigan Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health to reaffirm our commitment to improving health outcomes for girls and women in Michigan.
 Since I took office, lowering the costs of health care has been a top priority. I am proud of the steps we?ve taken to protect women?s health. By protecting and expanding access to birth control, reproductive health care, and family planning services, we are empowering women to make choices about their future that are best for them and their families. We have also made strides to lower the cost of coverage through Plan First and closing infant racial health gaps with Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies.
Protecting your Personal Information
In light of the developing national conversation on pregnancy and period tracking, I want to remind you to check your health apps and be mindful of any data that is shared with app developers and third parties.
With so much sensitive information online about our health, habits, and lives, we need to stay vigilant about bad actors trying to get their hands on it. Without adequate protections, health data could be used to go after women seeking reproductive health care, their friends and family, and to prosecute nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. Here in Michigan, we are going to protect people?s data and their reproductive freedom.
I, along with Attorney General Dana Nessel, urge Michiganders to check their health apps. I urge those who are attending college out of state to check Attorney General Dana Nessel?s consumer alerts on private health and location data, especially if they are located in a state with restrictions on abortion and contraception.
In August 2022, I sent a letter to Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft asking them to bolster their efforts to protect personal data. As reproductive freedom is under attack and extremists seek to use location and health data to go after women, nurses, and doctors, I called on big tech to do more to protect their fundamental right to privacy and bodily autonomy. To view the full letter, click the following link: Letter to Big Tech on Data Privacy Protections.pdf? ?
Every Michigander deserves control over their personal health information.
How to Protect Your Data
The?Protecting Private Health and Location Data Consumer Alert is available on the Department of Attorney General?s Consumer Protection page.
Here are some additional tips from the Federal Trade Commission on how to protect personal data:?
1. Compare options on privacy. When considering a health app, ask some key questions:
- Why does the app collect information?
- How does the app share that information ? and with whom?
- Then choose the app with the level of privacy preferred.?
2. Take control of personal information.
- Do app settings let the user control the health information the app collects and shares??
- Is the app up to date??
3. Know the risks.
- Are the app?s services worth risking personal information getting into the wrong hands
4. Report concerns. Do you think a health app shared personal information without permission??
Together, let's protect access to women's health and privacy.
Sincerely,
 Gretchen Whitmer
Governor
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