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2021-09-02 at 4:31 PM UTCThe Week
Chief Justice Roberts, 3 other dissenters slam colleagues for hastily rewarding Texas 'bounty hunter' abortion ban scheme
Peter Weber
A sharply divided Supreme Court early Thursday said it will not block a new Texas law that deputizes any Texan to enforce a six-week ban on abortions. Five justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — explained in a brief, unsigned majority opinion that the abortion advocates asking for an emergency stay "raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue," but they were unable to untangle the "complex and novel antecedent procedural questions" raised by the law.
The four dissenters — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — argued in separate rebuttals that their five colleagues, without any real debate, were rewarding Texas lawmakers for inventing a novel scheme to stomp on decades of Supreme Court precedent.
"The statutory scheme before the Court is not only unusual, but unprecedented," Roberts wrote, and he would have granted "preliminary relief" at least until "the courts may consider whether a state can avoid responsibility for its laws in such a manner." Instead, the court allowed the law to take effect before lower courts weighed in, "without ordinary merits briefing, and without oral argument."
Sotomayor was more direct, calling the court's decision "stunning" and saying the five-justice majority "opted to bury their heads in the sand" while Texas "flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents" by "outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry." Essentially, "the Texas Legislature has deputized the state's citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors' medical procedures," she wrote, and the court is rewarding this "breathtaking act of defiance — of the Constitution, of this court's precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas."
Breyer wrote that he doesn't see how Texas' enforcement-delegation scheme "should make a critical difference," since it still "threatens to invade a constitutional right."
Kagan said the court should not have greenlighted a "patently unconstitutional law" with barely any discussion and "less than 72 hours' thought." The five justices gave only "cursory" review to the submitted documents, and "barely bothers to explain its conclusion — that a challenge to an obviously unconstitutional abortion regulation backed by a wholly unprecedented enforcement scheme is unlikely to prevail," she added. "In all these ways, the majority's decision is emblematic of too much of this court's shadow-docket decisionmaking — which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend."
How do you like your Supreme Court packing ex-President now? -
2021-09-02 at 4:59 PM UTCKeeping a good thought, eh?
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2021-09-02 at 6:58 PM UTCIt's been known for a while that the SC were going to cuck "conservative" for a while in order to keep the impression of impartiality.
"The four dissenters — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — argued in separate rebuttals that their five colleagues, without any real debate, were rewarding Texas lawmakers for inventing a novel scheme to stomp on decades of Supreme Court precedent."
So basically their colleagues were interpreting the law correctly? That's what "novel scheme" means, right? A correct legal interpretation.
Although we all know the US SC doesn't give a shit about what the law actually says, hence the constant split-down-the-middle rulings. -
2021-09-03 at 5:05 AM UTCthe S in USSC stands for sha ryah.
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2021-09-03 at 6:05 AM UTCWith an overwhelming conservative majority on the Supreme Court because of Republican refusal to hear Obama's choice because he only had a year left and then shoving through another one of their own with Trump only having weeks left, get ready for even more "Sharia" laws.
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2021-09-03 at 1:39 PM UTCBusiness Insider
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said other judges 'opted to bury their heads in the sand' as new Texas anti-abortion law turns citizens into 'bounty hunters'
bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger)
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a strong dissent to a 5-4 decision allowing a new Texas abortion ban.
"A majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand," she wrote.
"In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State's citizens as bounty hunters," she added.
The Supreme Court declined overnight to block a new Texas law that prohibits abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy, and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor had some choice words for her fellow judges in a fiery dissent to the 5-4 decision.
"The Court's order is stunning," she said at the start of her dissent. "Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand."
The new Texas law, which took effect on Wednesday, is intended to be enforced by everyday citizens. People can sue a Texas abortion provider or anyone they believe is assisting someone getting an abortion beyond the six-week mark. Citizens can be rewarded $10,000 for a successful lawsuit.
That six-week threshold is before most women are even aware that they're pregnant, making it very difficult to obtain an abortion in Texas under the new law.
"In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State's citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors' medical procedures," wrote Sotomayor. "Because the Court's failure to act rewards tactics designed to avoid judicial review and inflicts significant harm on the applicants and on women seeking abortions in Texas, I dissent."
The 5-4 decision denied an "application for injunctive relief" for the new law, which would have blocked its implementation. Five of the court's conservative justices - Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas - voted in the majority, while conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sotomayor in dissenting.
"Today, the Court finally tells the Nation that it declined to act because, in short, the State's gambit worked," Sotomayor wrote. "At a minimum, this Court should have stayed implementation of the Act to allow the lower courts to evaluate these issues in the normal course."
In their majority opinion, the five conservative justices said that they were not making a determination about whether the law was actually constitutional. "In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit," they wrote. -
2021-09-03 at 4:18 PM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 With an overwhelming conservative majority on the Supreme Court because of Republican refusal to hear Obama's choice because he only had a year left and then shoving through another one of their own with Trump only having weeks left, get ready for even more "Sharia" laws.
i know.
the lefts are now calling the rights american tallybun. -
2021-09-03 at 7:04 PM UTCMaking
A
Gigantic
Assed post
Talking Points Memo
SCOTUS Breaks Silence, Dashes Hopes As Conservatives Let Texas Abortion Ban Stand
Kate Riga
In yet more late-night happenings, most of the conservative contingent of the Supreme Court let the Texas abortion ban stand just before midnight Wednesday.
The law went into effect early Wednesday morning, which has now left the second largest state in the country with virtually no access to legal abortions. The law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people even know that they’re pregnant.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch declined to grant abortion providers’ motion for relief in one long, unsigned paragraph.
The Texas law was crafted purposefully to make lawsuits difficult, as the law will be carried out by individual vigilantes and not state officials — therefore leaving no clear person to sue, at least before an individual has brought a suit against anyone “aiding or abetting” a post-six week abortion. The conservatives clung to that as rationale for denying the injunction.
Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices all wrote individual dissents.
“The court’s order is stunning,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote scathingly. “Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.”
Collins Admits Texas Law Is ‘Harmful’ While Still Finding Some Kudos To Toss At Conservative Majority
Sen. Susan “Concerned” Collins (R-ME) chimed in on the Texas abortion ban Thursday afternoon. She pointed out that the Court’s conservative majority, which basically washed its hands of the law because it was designed to evade judicial review, did not address the law’s constitutionality.
Here’s her statement, via an NBC producer:
WH Press Sec Shuts Down Male Reporter’s Anti-Abortion Line Of Questioning: You’ve Never ‘Been Pregnant’
Not today, Satan. When Owen Jensen, a reporter from Eternal Word Television Network (a Catholic news site), asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki about why the President supports abortion rights despite his Catholic faith, which he said deems it “morally wrong,” Psaki replied that Biden believes that abortion is a woman’s right.
Even as Jensen pressed on her on who Biden believes “should look out for the unborn child,” Psaki told him he’d had enough questioning time and epically shut him down.
“He believes that it’s up to a woman to make those decisions and to make those decisions with her doctor,” Psaki said. “I know you’ve never faced those choices nor have you ever been pregnant, but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The President believes their rights should be respected.”
Ted Cruz’s Office Speaks Up On SCOTUS Ruling
After a morning in which much of the Republican Party and right-wing media has been oddly tight-lipped about the Supreme Court’s ruling, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) finally got around to weighing in on the matter.
A spokesman for Cruz told HuffPost that Cruz is “proud” of Texas’ anti-abortion law and encouraged states to wage more anti-abortion legislation.
“Sen. Cruz is proud that Texas is leading the charge to defend life. Every life is a gift from God, and without life, there is no liberty,” a spokesman for Cruz said, according to HuffPost. “The question of abortion legislation should be returned to the states.”
Copycat bills of the Texas anti-abortion law have, in fact, started to emerge in other states.
Nadler Says House Judiciary Committee Will Hold Hearings On SCOTUS’ Use Of Shadow Docket
Sen. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that the Supreme Court’s midnight, unsigned ruling has prompted him to hold hearings on the Court’s use of the shadow docket.
“And because the Court has now shown repressive state legislatures how to game the system, the House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings to shine a light on the Supreme Court’s dangerous and cowardly use of the shadow docket,” he said in a statement.
Arkansas GOP Senator Introduces Copycat Bill Of Texas Anti-Abortion Law
Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R), who is running for the state’s lieutenant governor gig next year, announced that he ordered a bill that would update the state’s law that bans all abortions unless the procedure is necessary to save a woman’s life to “mirror” Texas’ anti-abortion law.
Arkansas isn’t the only state weighing legislation similar to Texas’ abortion ban. Florida Senate president Wilton Simpson told a local NBC affiliate that “there is no question” that the state legislature will consider an abortion heartbeat bill like the one in Texas.
Another Progressive Senator Urges Filibuster Elimination
Yesterday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that Congress must codify abortion rights — and if that requires eliminating the filibuster in the Senate, so be it.
Her fellow senator from Massachusetts, Ed Markey, joined the chorus on Thursday.
“Senate Democrats have the power to fix this problem right now by abolishing the filibuster and passing my legislation to expand the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement. “We need to restore balance to the Court after Donald Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell blatantly stole the seats of Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg.”
“Senate Democrats also must act swiftly to pass federal legislation to protect access to legal abortion care for millions of Americans, like the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which would safeguard against bans like this and unnecessary medical barriers,” he added.
He said pointedly that the SCOTUS ruling must be an “urgent call to action” for his colleagues — namely, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), the two devotees of the filibuster.
Anti-Abortion Group Says It Called FBI On ‘Broken Souls’ Who ‘Threatened’ It
Texas Right to Life promoted its tip line for people looking to catch people seeking abortions — and then sue all the people connected to the procedure — in an eerie, chipper video posted Thursday.
“Because Texas Right to Life served a key role in shepherding the heartbeat bill to passage, the unscrupulous abortion mob is reeling, launching cyber attacks, casting hexes and threatening our team and the organization,” director Elizabeth Graham said. “While we recognize these broken souls as intolerant keyboard warriors who operate in darkness, we also share a healthy respect for our ruthless spiritual enemy. Thus we involved the FBI and local police departments.”
The video was replete with guidance for vigilantes looking to identify those seeking abortions, and promises anonymity for the pregnant person (while asking the tipsters for as much detail as possible).
“Those who worship at the altar of child sacrifice tried to shut down prolifewhistleblower.com, but the site is still functioning and active and awaiting your reports and findings,” Graham said cheerfully.
She added that the law was crafted to avoid “activist judges,” and encourages the vigilantes to “peacefully stand up to an abortionist in your town.”
“We must don the whole armor of God,” she proclaimed, asking for prayers.
McConnell Gets Squirmy Over Whether SCOTUS Ruling Gutted Roe
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), having gleefully burned down basic rules of functional governance to hijack the Supreme Court and entrench conservatism for the next several decades, bizarrely isn’t relishing in the fruits of his labor today. Instead, the GOP leader reportedly called the ruling “a highly technical decision” and even tried to signal that it wouldn’t hurt Roe, saying, “Whether it leads to a broader ruling on Roe v. Wade is unclear at this point.”
What’s actually unclear is why McConnell wouldn’t take credit for ushering in what can only be described as a massive victory for his party’s war on abortion – unless you take into account the fact that a majority of the country is on the other side of that war. More than 75 percent of Americans want to keep Roe and 57 percent identify themselves as pro-choice, according to a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. And according to a Pew poll released in May, 59 percent of Americans said abortion ought to be legal in all or most cases, while only 39 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases (and it ought to be noted that Texas’ law doesn’t make an exception for rape or incest).
Protesters Troll Anti-Abortion ‘Whistleblower’ Site With Fake ‘Tips’
As Politico’s Alice Ollstein points out, Texas Right to Life — the anti-abortion group that set up an online tip form for “whistleblowers” to send information relating to any abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — says the protesters that have flooded their tip line haven’t ground anything to a halt.
The group — which implied that it will investigate the tips it receives of individuals “aiding or abetting” a person seeking an abortion — sees the fake “tips” as great publicity for them. (Reminder: Successful lawsuits under Texas’ anti-abortion law net the person bringing the suit a $10,000 bounty, and all legal fees paid for by the defendants.)
The Silence Of Fox News
Much like the silence from some national Republicans after a big 48 hours, Fox News is not exactly crowing about the right-wing victory.
From a Vox journalist:
US GOP Leaders Are Being Weirdly Quiet About This
Even though they’ve opposed Roe v. Wade publicly, many top national Republicans haven’t taken any sort of victory lap or even openly acknowledged the ruling so far: not GOP chair Ronna McDaniel, not the official GOP Twitter account, not even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said anything about his home state’s successful torpedoing of the precedent. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has offered a single gesture of support in the form of retweeting ex. Sen Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) post claiming that Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the law was “completely incorrect.” That’s it.
And yet McDaniel, the national GOP, and Cornyn have all given full-throated defenses of Texas’ voter suppression law in the past 48 hours, so it’s not like they’re reluctant to speak on controversial legislation in the Lone Star State.
(On an unrelated note, a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe and believe abortion ought to be legal.)
AG Garland Says DOJ ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Texas Anti-Abortion Law
Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a brief statement saying that the Justice Department is “deeply concerned” about the Texas anti-abortion law that the Supreme Court allowed to stand. Without mentioning the Supreme Court’s overnight ruling, Garland said that the DOJ is “evaluating all options” to protect reproductive rights.
Although Garland’s statement does not go into detail about the “options” that the DOJ is considering, President Biden directed his administration’s Gender Policy Council and the Office of the White House Counsel to launch a “whole-of-government effort” to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling — which entails looking at ways that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department can ensure Texas women that they have access to safe and legal abortions under Roe v. Wade.
The Texas Law Creates A Thought Crime
The Texas law is jam-packed with lines meant to favor the individual bounty hunters above the constellation of people surrounding the person seeking an abortion who they could sue. Here is the very broad class of people the law lets that individual sue:
Any person who:
Performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subchapter
Knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, if the abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subchapter, regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced in violation of this subchapter; or
Intends to engage in the conduct described by subdivision (1) or (2)
The law permits individuals to sue people who “intend to engage” in the illegal abortion — before they’ve taken any action to do so. The law is littered with landmines (see that second bullet point, for a start), but the dangers of just that one clause are obvious and many.
Pelosi Promises Congressional Action After SCOTUS Abdication
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sent out a statement Thursday calling the Supreme Court majority opinion “cowardly” and “shameful.” She said that the “unconstitutional assault on women’s rights” necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade.
“Upon our return, the House will bring up Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America,” she said.
Political reality check: there is no way a bill expanding abortion access will survive the filibuster in the Senate. Like with all progressive legislation that can’t squeak through the reconciliation process, there will be a choice for the couple Democratic senators who love the Senate rule: filibuster, or abortion rights.
Kagan Takes Aim At Shadow Docket Decision-Making
In her dissent Justice Elena Kagan dismisses the Texas law as unconstitutional out of hand, and spends time critiquing her conservative colleagues for their enthusiastic use of the shadow docket to hand down perfunctory, opaque rulings on complicated questions.
“Without full briefing or argument, and after less than 72 hours’ thought, this Court greenlights the operation of Texas’s patently unconstitutional law banning most abortions”
“As of last night, and because of this Court’s ruling, Texas law prohibits abortions for the vast majority of women who seek them—in clear, and indeed undisputed, conflict with Roe and Casey“
“The majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this Court’s shadow-docket decision making—which every day becomes more un-reasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend”
Florida Is Already Considering A Copycat Of The Texas Abortion Law
Florida is wasting no time. Similar legislation in the vein of Texas’ abortion ban is reportedly in the works in the Sunshine State, according to a political reporter at a local NBC affiliate:
This isn’t a surprise. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vowed during his gubernatorial campaign in 2018 to sign legislation to ban abortions “after a fetal heartbeat is detected.” Last year, DeSantis quietly signed a controversial bill that requires parental consent before minors can have abortions.
Biden Torches SCOTUS For ‘Unleashing Unconstitutional Chaos’
In a statement, President Biden deemed the Supreme Court’s overnight ruling an “unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade.”
“By allowing a law to go into effect that empowers private citizens in Texas to sue health care providers, family members supporting a woman exercising her right to choose after six weeks, or even a friend who drives her to a hospital or clinic, it unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts,” the President said.
While acknowledging the “immediate” impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Biden said that he directed his administration’s Gender Policy Council and the Office of the White House Counsel to launch a “whole-of-government effort” to respond to the court’s decision — which entails looking at what the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice can do to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions under Roe.
In Furious Dissent, Sotomayor Rips Both TX Lawmakers And Her Conservative Colleagues
Sotomayor’s dissent seethes, her anger almost rising off the page. It’s worth reading the whole thing (here, scroll to page 7), but she absolutely wallops the Texas lawmakers for crafting the law to evade judicial review and flays her conservative colleagues for rewarding them for doing it. Some key quotes:
“Last night, the Court silently acquiesced in a State’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents. Today, the Court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities of the State’s own invention”
“The Act is clearly unconstitutional under existing precedents”
“In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State’s citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors’ medical procedures”
“Today, the Court finally tells the Nation that it declined to act because, in short, the State’s gambit worked”
We Can’t Forget About The Role Race Plays In This
The racial divide between the people this law impacts and those it doesn’t is a key component of this ruling and its consequences.
As we pointed out yesterday, women of color and low income women will bear the brunt of this law due to disproportionately high pregnancy-related health risks and fewer resources to travel out of state to obtain an abortion out of state. Systemic racism puts extra barriers in front of access to reproductive health care for Black women, who account for 28 percent of all abortions in the U.S.
Those facts are coupled with some electoral math: White Texans, including white women, helped this ban become a reality by throwing a majority of their support behind Trump — who ended up picking three Supreme Court justices who voted to allow the ban — in 2016 and 2020 and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in 2018. It highlights how race is inextricably tied to the abortion fight.
Breyer Gives Suggestions Of Who Opponents To TX Law Could Sue
Justice Stephen Breyer in his dissent makes no bones about the unconstitutionality of the Texas law, and offers suggestions as to who its opponents could sue, a question the conservative majority claimed was so boggling as to prevent them from blocking the law. Here are his key quotes:
“Texas’s law delegates to private individuals the power to prevent a woman from obtaining an abortion during the first stage of pregnancy. But a woman has a federal constitutional right to obtain an abortion during that first stage.”
“The applicants, with supporting affidavits, claim that clinics will be unable to run the financial and other risks that come from waiting for a private person to sue them under the Texas law; they will simply close, depriving care to more than half the women seeking abortions in Texas clinics.”
He argues that notwithstanding the law’s weird regulatory scheme, it should still be possible to provide legal remedy for the legal right being invaded “perhaps by permitting lawsuits against a subset of delegatees (say, those particularly likely to exercise the delegated powers), or perhaps by permitting lawsuits against officials whose actions are necessary to implement the statute’s enfor -
2021-09-03 at 10:50 PM UTCGizmodo
GoDaddy Is Giving Texas Abortion Snitching Site the Boot
Brianna Provenzano
After users threatened to boycott the internet domain service GoDaddy for hosting the newly-established tip line that allows Texans to anonymously snitch on private citizens they suspect of performing an abortion after six weeks or anyone who “aids or abets” such abortions in the state, the company abruptly announced that it is booting the site from its servers over terms of service violations.
“We have informed prolifewhistleblower.com they have 24 hours to move to another provider for violating our terms of service,” Dan C. Race, a GoDaddy spokesman, told Gizmodo in an email. The company first informed the New York Times of the 24-hour window to find another hosting provider “late Thursday,” meaning it likely has just hours to do so or, presumably, it will go offline.
At the time of publication, the site’s “anonymous tip” page appeared to be either offline or severely busted. Multiple attempts to access the tip line led Gizmodo to a page declaring “access denied.” Other parts of the site remained accessible, however.
The site was established by Texas Right To Life, the anti-abortion group that has long crusaded against a woman’s right to choose in the Lone Star State. As Gizmodo previously reported, the very nature of the website appeared to run counter to GoDaddy’s terms of service, which stipulate that customers cannot use its platform in a manner that “violates the privacy or publicity rights of another User or any other person or entity, or breaches any duty of confidentiality that you owe to another User or any other person or entity.”
A site that explicitly encourages people to narc on their neighbors by revealing privileged medical information seems to be in pretty clear violation of those standards, one might think, which is exactly what prolifewhistleblower.com did.
“Any Texan can bring a lawsuit against an abortionist or someone aiding and abetting an abortion after six weeks,” the website reads. “If these individuals are proved to be violating the law, they have to pay a fine of at least $10,000.”
As outrage over the passage of new anti-abortion law—which essentially amounts to an outright ban on the procedure itself—spread online, Twitter users called for a boycott of GoDaddy and trolls flooded the digital tip line with everything from Shrek porn to phony tips. The site later set up CAPTCHA protections to avoid these efforts, but now the whole thing is broken if not entirely offline.
So far, it looks like the security service Sucuri—which GoDaddy owns—is still hosting the tip line, which means it will likely have to evacuate to a new host or go dark soon. But if the slimy legal maneuver pro-life groups used to jam the six-week ban through the legislature in the first place is any indication, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and even if it’s forced to temporarily recalibrate, we’ll undoubtedly see this scourge back online in due time. -
2021-09-03 at 11 PM UTCNBC News
TikTokers bombard Texas anti-abortion whistleblower website with Shrek porn, false information
Wilson Wong
Organization Texas Right to Life is urging citizens to submit anonymous tips on its website to help enforce the state's new anti-abortion law.
So a handful of TikTokers decided to put whistleblowing into their own hands —by flooding the organization's website with Shrek porn (and other deliberately false information).
The effort to troll the anti-abortion group was spearheaded by Gen Zers Victoria Hammett and Olivia Julianna, who both said they felt appalled by the recent legislation, which forbids abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy. The law also allows private citizens, including people who live outside of Texas, to sue abortion providers or anyone else who helped someone get an abortion after the six-week limit for at least $10,000 per defendant.
"Texas has anonymously set up a system where you can report people who have gotten abortions," Hammett, 22, said in an Aug. 23 TikTok video, which has amassed more than 850,000 views. "Wouldn't it be so awful if we send in a bunch of fake tips and crashed the site? Like, 'Greg Abbott's butt stinks.'"
Julianna, 18, a native Texan, said she knew she wanted to take action after learning about Texas Right to Life's website.
"I found out about this website and thought, 'We have to do whatever we can if they're going to use the internet against us — the very people who were raised on the internet,'" Julianna said.
Shortly after, Hammett posted her own video to raise awareness about the anti-abortion website. Their message quickly exploded.
"The reaction has been amazing because people have felt really lost in regards to this anti-abortion legislation, and this was just one way of fighting back against this new law," Hammett said.
Many TikTok users, according to Hammett, have deliberately sent fake information to the website, including tips with titles like "Greg Abbott farts" or "calls to abort Ted Cruz." Some have sent graphic images of Shrek, while others have reported excerpts from the 2007 film, "Bee Movie," or Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series.
TikToker Sean Black, 20, who asked NBC News not to use his real name out of fear for his safety, said he used his own software engineering expertise to get a little more creative.
"I coded this bot that basically spams the website with fake submissions," he said. "Once the bot is downloaded, it will automatically open the website, fill out the form with fake data that makes it look like you're in Texas, submit it and then re-submit it, again and again."
According to Black, more than 30,000 people have already downloaded the bot as of Friday afternoon.
Attempting to crash the anti-abortion website is one of several initiativesthat Gen Zers have spearheaded using TikTok as a tool to spread the word. Last year, some users launched an anti-racist campaign to flood some websites and apps that were collecting crime tips with K-pop fan videos.
Though some TikTokers said their submissions have led to the website crashing, Kim Schwartz, the director of media and communication at Texas Right for Life, told NBC News that the organization has not experienced any issues with the website so far.
"People who have been saying it crashed are confused," she said in an email Thursday. "If people can't access it, it's because they're blocked. People who have been reporting fake tips get their IPs blocked."
Schwartz said the group anticipated trolls, and has implemented safeguards on its website. She declined to specify the safeguards to prevent further spam.
If people want to submit additional fake tips, Schwartz said they can use the organization's "new site," ProChoiceTrolls.com, which links to a video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" — a bait-and-switch practice better known as "Rick Rolling."
Even with preventative measures in place, Julianna said TikTokers, particularly Gen-Z teens, are just going to continue to do what they know how to do best.
"What these anti-abortion people ought to realize is that this may only seem like a silly, trolling campaign to us young people, but this is our way to try to ruin their plan and buy us some more time to get Roe v. Wade federally codified," she said. "I don't think these anti-abortion people realize the internet isn't their space; it's ours. We grew up on it, and we know how to navigate it."
Hammett agreed, adding that she knew messing with the website wasn't going to substantially prevent the anti-abortion law from being enforced.
"This effort was to get more people talking about this problem," she said. "The most important thing right now is: We need to do more, we need to protest, we need to phone bank, and we need to go and vote Greg Abbott and these other Republican lawmakers out." -
2021-09-04 at 2:06 AM UTCchirp chirp chirp chirp .....
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2021-09-04 at 11:12 AM UTCDoes anyone here actually care about abortion or is this just "my team good, your team bad"?
"My team is *looks it up* pro abortion! Yay! Abort all the babies. Abortions for everyone! Mandatory abortions until covid is no longer a thing."The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2021-09-04 at 2:20 PM UTCMy eyes are bleeding
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2021-09-04 at 6 PM UTC
Originally posted by Donald Trump Does anyone here actually care about abortion or is this just "my team good, your team bad"?
"My team is *looks it up* pro abortion! Yay! Abort all the babies. Abortions for everyone! Mandatory abortions until covid is no longer a thing."
abortion reduces crime rate. -
2021-09-04 at 6:46 PM UTCActually, I don't believe I could ever abort a fetus. I certainly didn't when the occasion arose in my own life.
This is an obviously unconstitutional law that turns citizens into medical vigilantes of other people's lives and will eventually be overturned. Only, by then most, if not all, of the abortion clinics in Texas will have had to shut their doors.
How many unwanted children will be born because of this law? How many children their mother can't support will be born because of this law. And...who will help thee poor, defenseless children once they are born...the Republicans? Not a snowball's chance in hell. -
2021-09-04 at 10:04 PM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 Actually, I don't believe I could ever abort a fetus. I certainly didn't when the occasion arose in my own life.
This is an obviously unconstitutional law that turns citizens into medical vigilantes of other people's lives and will eventually be overturned. Only, by then most, if not all, of the abortion clinics in Texas will have had to shut their doors.
How many unwanted children will be born because of this law? How many children their mother can't support will be born because of this law. And…who will help thee poor, defenseless children once they are born…the Republicans? Not a snowball's chance in hell.
Yeah, it'll just lead to a bunch of unwanted shitty people being born. Abortion is a self-solving problem, let anyone who would kill their unborn children do so, in a few generations the problem has resolved itself.
But there are no actually poor people in America. Just people who can't afford everything they want. -
2021-09-05 at 2:43 AM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 Actually, I don't believe I could ever abort a fetus. I certainly didn't when the occasion arose in my own life.
This is an obviously unconstitutional law that turns citizens into medical vigilantes of other people's lives and will eventually be overturned. Only, by then most, if not all, of the abortion clinics in Texas will have had to shut their doors.
How many unwanted children will be born because of this law? How many children their mother can't support will be born because of this law. And…who will help thee poor, defenseless children once they are born…the Republicans? Not a snowball's chance in hell.
so now your against vaccine mandate ?
or r u just being the usual hypocreep you are.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2021-09-05 at 9:31 PM UTCMany
Ain't
Gettin'
Any
Washington Examiner
Bette Midler calls for sex strike over Texas abortion law
Matthew Miller
Actress Bette Midler called for women to go on a sex strike to protest the recently passed Texas abortion law. She also called for Congress to protect women's abortion rights.
The Texas abortion law took effect on Wednesday, banning all abortion procedures after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. The law also allows private citizens to sue abortion providers.
“I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress,” Midler tweeted on Thursday.
Midler targeted the GOP in another tweet, saying the party's "cruelty" to women is "endless."
“The cruelty of the #GOP is endless. We are suffering COVID-19, hurricanes, apocalyptic flooding, wildfires from hell, joblessness, homelessness, evictions, racial strife, and they pick this hideous time to pile on yet another shock to women, by taking away their right to choose,” the actress wrote.
Democrats have already begun taking measures to thwart the Texas law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced that the House will vote to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would protect abortion providers' rights, as well as a woman's right to seek an abortion.
She said the legislation would be voted on when the chamber returns to session on Sept. 20.
President Joe Biden asked the Gender Policy Council and White House counsel to begin a “whole-of-government effort” to address the new law. -
2021-09-05 at 9:34 PM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 Many
Ain't
Gettin'
Any
Washington Examiner
Bette Midler calls for sex strike over Texas abortion law
Matthew Miller
Actress Bette Midler called for women to go on a sex strike to protest the recently passed Texas abortion law. She also called for Congress to protect women's abortion rights.
The Texas abortion law took effect on Wednesday, banning all abortion procedures after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. The law also allows private citizens to sue abortion providers.
“I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress,” Midler tweeted on Thursday.
Midler targeted the GOP in another tweet, saying the party's "cruelty" to women is "endless."
“The cruelty of the #GOP is endless. We are suffering COVID-19, hurricanes, apocalyptic flooding, wildfires from hell, joblessness, homelessness, evictions, racial strife, and they pick this hideous time to pile on yet another shock to women, by taking away their right to choose,” the actress wrote.
Democrats have already begun taking measures to thwart the Texas law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, announced that the House will vote to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would protect abortion providers' rights, as well as a woman's right to seek an abortion.
She said the legislation would be voted on when the chamber returns to session on Sept. 20.
President Joe Biden asked the Gender Policy Council and White House counsel to begin a “whole-of-government effort” to address the new law.
In order words an ugly old jedi is trying to break up families. -
2021-09-07 at 3:56 PM UTC
