Bored and well-funded, the anti-abortion non-profit Texas Right to Life decided their crusade in “God’s Country” involves setting up a website for citizens to tattle on people who might have helped in getting an abortion. Launched in July, the anonymous tip line appears to be another tool in the arsenal against reproductive rights and comes just in time for state Senate Bill 8 (SB8)’s first day as a law on September 1.
The restrictive Texas SB8 allows civil lawsuits to be filed (by anyone who is not “an officer or employee of a state or local governmental entity”) against those attempting to or aiding someone getting an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected—emphatically not a “heartbeat,” as anti-abortion factions have taken to calling it because that helps them sway people’s opinions. This is on top of mandating multiple visits to a clinic.
The website for tattling on people who could potentially be sued under this law had a few major issues—besides its very existence, that is. Though Texas Right to Life attempts to restrict abortion, they made it very easy for people to send them anything. So, left unprotected with basics like reCAPTCHAs, people are flooding the ProLifeWhistleblower.com with Shrek porn and other memes.
Here is the form where you can send text, images, and arbitrary strings to Texas Right to Life. I’m just leaving it right here.
— Eva (@evacide) August 21, 2021
While this has made the rounds on many social medias, it is Reddit and TikTok users attracting the most attention. One TikTok amassed a half million views sharing a false report.
@williamshaughn_#abortionispoggers #prochoice #abortion #abortionisahumanright♬ original sound – williamshaughn_
The top-voted reply under a post in r/Prochoice wrote, “Thank goodness you are here. Today I was walking down my street in the Dallas suburb of Christiantian, and I saw SEVERAL women who were not visibly pregnant. I cannot say for certain that they have had abortions, but why are they not pregnant if they are of childbearing age? Clearly there are abortions afoot. Please investigate these womens!!!!”
Digital Culture writer at MelMagazine Quinn Myers reported that the (now) 79,000+ upvotes a post on the August r/TwoChromosomes about ProLifeWhistleblower.com landed on Reddit’s front page on Monday.
Like the Donald Trump’s 2019 Rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth last summer, people called upon the K-Pop Army to also help raise awareness of this massive oversight in data collection.
sure would be crazy if people just spammed this website with fancam until it crashed #bts #btsarmy #kpop #ArmysWillWaitForBTS #army #jimin #jungkook https://t.co/GJzkEe6aUK
— sgt balls🏳️⚧️ (@sgtballsisback) August 21, 2021
While this is fun to troll Texas Right to Life and others, the bill itself is very serious. SB8 effectively outlaws abortion past the six-week mark in gestation, before many people even know they are pregnant. On average, people discover they are pregnant at the five-week mark. That gives already an unbelievably stressed person less than a week to make a life-changing decision and then, if they decide to end the pregnancy, get time off, gather the funds, and secure transportation (twice) to one of the few clinics left in Texas.
In addition to shortening the timespan women can get a legal abortion (which is made difficult by other measures beyond a short deadline), SB8 also allows for the punishment of abortion providers and those that help “aid or abet” an abortion. So, if you drive or order an Uber your friend or family member to get an abortion (even if they are leaving the state), you could be held liable, too.
All of this can be capitalized on by wannabe vigilantes like Texas Right to Life because the legislation mandates that defendants who lose in these lawsuits pay their accusers $10,000 per alleged abortion, in addition to court costs and attorney’s fees.
This by itself is already bad, but many are concerned this will be used to harass people regardless of how they feel about reproductive freedom. For example, a vengeful partner or fed-up employee could unleash anti-choice activists on the people they’re mad at by making up some details about an attempted or successful post-six weeks abortion.
In that TikTok above, the 11 Shrek images are uploaded with a fake story explaining “my wife aborted our baby 4 weeks into her pregnancy without my consulting me.” The report claims to have found screenshot evidence of the abortion while she was in the shower.
A Texas director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Nancy Cárdenas Peña, told The Daily Dot that her IP address was banned after she tweeted the website.
Ppl starting to get blocked 💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/svYNwkgJ1S
— Nancy Cárdenas Peña (@ncardenastx) August 21, 2021
Other participants have reported issues submitting reports outside of Texas as the trolling has increased. Luckily for them, there are guides to “poison a dataset” with or without a VPN. Do whatever you legally want with this information.
Tip: use addresses from real estate websites in Texas to find an address to use.
— Hrafnhildur Björnsdóttir (@H_Bjornsdottir) August 24, 2021
In the meantime, find away to support the 20+ providers and many organizations fighting this in the courts and in communities in need. Also, pay attention both the bills that chip away at Roe v. Wade as well as the precedent itself, because the conservative-locked U.S. Supreme Court is hearing cases that could overturn the landmark case.
(Via TikTok, feature: Dreamworks.)
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