Texas Website Where People Can Report Violators of Abortion Ban Shut Down a Second Time

Julie Mazziotta
·2 min read
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AUSTIN, TX - SEPT 1: Pro-choice protesters march outside the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 in Austin, TX. Texas passed SB8 which effectively bans nearly all abortions and it went into effect Sept. 1. A request to the Supreme Court to block the bill went unanswered and the Court still has yet to take any action on it.
AUSTIN, TX - SEPT 1: Pro-choice protesters march outside the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 in Austin, TX. Texas passed SB8 which effectively bans nearly all abortions and it went into effect Sept. 1. A request to the Supreme Court to block the bill went unanswered and the Court still has yet to take any action on it.

Sergio Flores/Getty Protestors march in Texas to fight the new abortion law

A website for whistleblowers to report people who violated the new, highly-restrictive Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has been shut down for a second time in a week after two different web hosts said it violates their terms of service.

The site, ProLifeWhistleblower.com, was set up by Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, as a forum for people to turn in anyone who they believe obtained or helped facilitate an abortion. Under the new Texas law SB 8, abortions after six weeks of pregnancy are banned and private citizens can earn at least $10,000 for successfully reporting anyone who violated the law.

RELATED: Texas Enacts a Near-Total Ban on Abortions, Outlawing Them After 6 Weeks of Pregnancy

The website was initially on hosting provider GoDaddy, but the company kicked it off last week, saying that it violated its terms of service. Texas Right to Life tried to move the site to web host Epik, but on Saturday the company also said it went against their terms of service.

"We're exploring various long-term plans for the domain registration," the group's spokeswoman, Kimberlyn Schwartz, told The Washington Post. "For now, ProLifeWhistleblower.com is redirecting to TexasRightToLife.com only while we move hosts."

After the law went into effect at midnight on Sept. 1, protesters started submitting fake reports to the whistleblower site. TikTok, Twitter and Reddit users and coders had organized to flood the site with tips saying, for example, that Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the law, had violated it, along with characters from the Avengers. Others used the attachment upload feature to paste in the script from the 2007 cartoon Bee Movie or pornographic images.

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Schwartz said that Texas Right to Life had received other tips before the site was shut down, and that they're "not afraid of the mob," in a post on their website. "Anti-life activists hate us because we're winning."

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The Texas law has led to a nationwide outcry from abortion rights proponents, who point out that six weeks is well before many people are aware that they're pregnant. The law does not provide any exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest.

On Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department is looking at "all options" to remove the law and will work to help abortion clinics in the state that are "under attack." The Supreme Court is expected to look at the law and whether it and other similar abortion bans in additional states are in violation of the precedents established with Roe v. Wade.