Twitter Disrupts, Shuts Down Website to Snitch on Texans Seeking Abortions

Last week, the Supreme Court allowed a ban on most abortions to go into and remain in effect in Texas, and as people around the country responded to the detrimental blow to body autonomy and reproductive healthcare and the dangerous precedent this law sets, Twitter users have found their own innovative way to fight back.

Texas now allows residents to turn in people seeking an abortion after six weeks along with the doctors who treat them, the nurses involved, even the Uber or Lyft driver who takes that person to the clinic. Thanks to social media, the website made for these reports has been going down intermittently, as it gets flooded with fake, often humorous, reports.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed S.B. 8 in May, allowing anyone in the state to sue for a $10,000 bounty if they believe someone has carried out an abortion following the sixth week of pregnancy, or even if they helped to procure an abortion, i.e. a ride-share driver who gives a patient a ride to a clinic. The Supreme Court refused to act on an emergency request that would delay the law while it is challenged in the court and later in the week ruled against granting an injunction that would prevent the law’s enforcement, the court’s majority saying the decision wasn’t based in whether or not the law was constitutional but rather, the technical question of who can be sued means they cannot issue an injunction.

The law indicates that anyone is allowed to sue for a $10,000 bounty if they think someone has carried out an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy or helped in the procurement of an abortion.

A website emerged since that allows people to leave anonymous “tips” (which would not allow the person leaving the tip to collect a bounty).

Comedian Deven Green was one prominent name who took to Twitter to encourage users to “join me in reporting even mildly suspected abortion to the Texas #Heartbeat hotline,” she says in a tweet from her satirical Christian character’s account, Mrs. Betty Bowers. “Let’s keep these busybodies busy!” she exclaims, sharing a screenshot of one of her multiple entries “turning in” neighbors, celebrities, politicians, and more for their “ungodly” behavior.

I encourage all of you to join me in reporting even mildly suspected abortions to the Texas #Heartbeat hotline. Let’s keep these busybodies busy! https://t.co/TDiMb41roM pic.twitter.com/qTIPYflWS5

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) September 1, 2021

She even turned in Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX):

“I know for a FACT that Ted Cruz is known to fly teenage girls to Mexico. Now, I never gossip. Except to save a soul,” she writes. “But we ALL know what you can buy for the price of a cup of coffee in Mexico! I’m not judging. That’s the Lord’s job. I’m just passing on the verdict. YOU DO THE MATH.”

Other user joined her in submitting entrees aimed to render the website useless.

At the time of publishing, the website would not load and was unavailable, showing that the effort seems to be working.