56 ms·

Texas introduces site to report women who have had an abortion

22 points by chirau 5y ago

dragonwriter 5y ago
Current title (“Texas introduces site to report women who have had an abortion”) is not only not the source title but is flagrantly false. This is not a site operated by the State of Texas, but rather by (as the top banner indicates) “Texas Right-to-Life”, a private entity whose main website [0] describes itself as “a non-profit advocacy and educational organization that opposes abortion at any point of gestation, as abortion destroys a living, growing human life. In the rare case that the mother’s life is indeed endangered by a continuation of the pregnancy, sound medical practice would dictate that every effort be made to save both lives.” This isn’t a law enforcement tip line, its a private harassment tip line. EDIT: And, to be clear, a tip line to report Constitutionally-protected activity to private activists who consider that activity to be morally identical to murder, and who consider themselves to be under divine instructions to stop and/or avenge such “murders”.
- aaron695 5y ago
  > who consider that activity to be morally identical to murder, They consider it murder. > and who consider themselves to be under divine instructions to stop and/or avenge such “murders”. I would imagine they feel the same about murder as everyone else. > its a private harassment tip line. But not of women who have had an abortion as the title lies, it's of people who help, who the website and others can then pursue through the legal channels of Texas law. Press Release - https://www.texasrighttolife.com/help-enforce-the-texas-heartbeat-act/?i=5 https://www.texasrighttolife.com/help-enforce-the-texas-hear...
grendelt 5y ago
It would be a shame if a lot of bots were to flood their form with spurious data.
- klyrs 5y ago
  Or fake data about real people... momswatting?
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  It would be an even bigger shame if this obvious, organized attempt by multiple persons to intimidate and organize private retaliation against the exercise of what has repeatedly been found by federal courts up to and including the Supreme Court to be a Constitutionally-protected right, and any actual intimidation and retaliation that follows from it, were to be investigated and prosecuted by federal law enforcement as a violation of 18 USC § 241, which reads, in relevant part: “If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same [...] They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.”
  - qmmmur 5y ago
    Smallest violin in the world being played for these private harassment entities right now
- Broken_Hippo 5y ago
  That effort is already underway - I first saw the link yesterday on facebook post with the same sort of message. For a while, I guess, you couldn't access it.
zeepzeep 5y ago
What the actual **? This is end level dystopian stuff. Okay guess I need a VPN to access it: > Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons.
- djbebs 5y ago
  Why? How is it different from having any other site to report crimes?
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > How is it different from having any other site to report crimes? For one, its not a site to report crimes to law enforcement, but to report exercise of Constitutional rights to private ideological harassers.
  - Arnt 5y ago
    What makes any other site acceptable? One of the main principles of modern western states is that only the police is police. This bit of our shared legacy comes from Max Weber, and is well worth reading, but the tl;dr is that getting rid of private law enforcement was a great step forward. The state sets up police and courts, and private entities (like the church) don't. If someone like the church wants to act like the police, that's illegal. If someone like the church wants to act differently based on information received, such as by harassing people in public based on private smears submitted by anonymouses, that's also illegal.
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    It isn't one of those sites. It is different because this isn't run by law enforcement, but rather the "right to life" group of pro-life activists. And the block is likely because the article is blocked in the EU.
klyrs 5y ago
Site's down (or blocking me), but a blurb about the site and a bit of context: https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yvjv/anti-abortion-whisleblower-website-texas-right-to-life https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yvjv/anti-abortion-whisleb...
bongoman37 5y ago
What's stopping people from reporting pro-life people to this site? Especially since a lot of people who have abortions are pro-life, just for other people's babies though.
- PartiallyTyped 5y ago
  In some circles, people expressed they will be DDOSing the service and report pro-life people or even made up people to halt the process to a crawl.
- JoeyBananas 5y ago
  If you read what the website says, they are only asking for anonymous tips about abortionists who violate Texas abortion laws. So, if you submit a tip about a known pro-life individual, they will quickly be able to check that they are not actually an abortionist. The title that OP chose is a lie.
leshenka 5y ago
> Your access to this site has been limited by the site owner > Block Reason: Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons. world wide fucking web
LinuxBender 5y ago
Odd choice of target. Illegal or not, I would have expected such a group to start with reporting abortion-fetish group members, or reporting the clinics that profit from selling organs of live babies from drug-addict mothers. I am not providing links to any of that mess. Seen the leaked video footage and it can not be unseen.

22 points by chirau 5y ago

Current title (“Texas introduces site to report women who have had an abortion”) is not only not the source title but is flagrantly false. This is not a site operated by the State of Texas, but rather by (as the top banner indicates) “Texas Right-to-Life”, a private entity whose main website [0] describes itself as “a non-profit advocacy and educational organization that opposes abortion at any point of gestation, as abortion destroys a living, growing human life. In the rare case that the mother’s life is indeed endangered by a continuation of the pregnancy, sound medical practice would dictate that every effort be made to save both lives.” This isn’t a law enforcement tip line, its a private harassment tip line. EDIT: And, to be clear, a tip line to report Constitutionally-protected activity to private activists who consider that activity to be morally identical to murder, and who consider themselves to be under divine instructions to stop and/or avenge such “murders”.

aaron695 5y ago
> who consider that activity to be morally identical to murder, They consider it murder. > and who consider themselves to be under divine instructions to stop and/or avenge such “murders”. I would imagine they feel the same about murder as everyone else. > its a private harassment tip line. But not of women who have had an abortion as the title lies, it's of people who help, who the website and others can then pursue through the legal channels of Texas law. Press Release - https://www.texasrighttolife.com/help-enforce-the-texas-heartbeat-act/?i=5 https://www.texasrighttolife.com/help-enforce-the-texas-hear...

grendelt 5y ago

It would be a shame if a lot of bots were to flood their form with spurious data.

klyrs 5y ago
Or fake data about real people... momswatting?
dragonwriter 5y ago
It would be an even bigger shame if this obvious, organized attempt by multiple persons to intimidate and organize private retaliation against the exercise of what has repeatedly been found by federal courts up to and including the Supreme Court to be a Constitutionally-protected right, and any actual intimidation and retaliation that follows from it, were to be investigated and prosecuted by federal law enforcement as a violation of 18 USC § 241, which reads, in relevant part: “If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same [...] They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.”
- qmmmur 5y ago
  Smallest violin in the world being played for these private harassment entities right now
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
That effort is already underway - I first saw the link yesterday on facebook post with the same sort of message. For a while, I guess, you couldn't access it.

zeepzeep 5y ago

What the actual **? This is end level dystopian stuff. Okay guess I need a VPN to access it: > Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons.

djbebs 5y ago
Why? How is it different from having any other site to report crimes?
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > How is it different from having any other site to report crimes? For one, its not a site to report crimes to law enforcement, but to report exercise of Constitutional rights to private ideological harassers.
- Arnt 5y ago
  What makes any other site acceptable? One of the main principles of modern western states is that only the police is police. This bit of our shared legacy comes from Max Weber, and is well worth reading, but the tl;dr is that getting rid of private law enforcement was a great step forward. The state sets up police and courts, and private entities (like the church) don't. If someone like the church wants to act like the police, that's illegal. If someone like the church wants to act differently based on information received, such as by harassing people in public based on private smears submitted by anonymouses, that's also illegal.
- Broken_Hippo 5y ago
  It isn't one of those sites. It is different because this isn't run by law enforcement, but rather the "right to life" group of pro-life activists. And the block is likely because the article is blocked in the EU.

klyrs 5y ago

Site's down (or blocking me), but a blurb about the site and a bit of context: https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yvjv/anti-abortion-whisleblower-website-texas-right-to-life https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yvjv/anti-abortion-whisleb...

bongoman37 5y ago

What's stopping people from reporting pro-life people to this site? Especially since a lot of people who have abortions are pro-life, just for other people's babies though.

PartiallyTyped 5y ago
In some circles, people expressed they will be DDOSing the service and report pro-life people or even made up people to halt the process to a crawl.
JoeyBananas 5y ago
If you read what the website says, they are only asking for anonymous tips about abortionists who violate Texas abortion laws. So, if you submit a tip about a known pro-life individual, they will quickly be able to check that they are not actually an abortionist. The title that OP chose is a lie.

leshenka 5y ago

> Your access to this site has been limited by the site owner > Block Reason: Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons. world wide fucking web

LinuxBender 5y ago

Odd choice of target. Illegal or not, I would have expected such a group to start with reporting abortion-fetish group members, or reporting the clinics that profit from selling organs of live babies from drug-addict mothers. I am not providing links to any of that mess. Seen the leaked video footage and it can not be unseen.