(LifeSiteNews) — Planned Parenthood published the home address of a Texas Right to Life (TRTL) employee as part of a recent lawsuit over the state’s novel abortion ban, leading the pro-life worker to be “bombarded with threats” from pro-abortion zealots.
A previous copy of the abortion giant’s lawsuit against TRTL over the recently-enacted Texas Heartbeat Act, linked in a September 2 Planned Parenthood press release, contained the home address of one of the pro-life group’s staffers, National Review reports.
The original link “was eventually taken down sometime after September 9, after the pro-life group’s attorneys raised the issue in court,” National Review reports, but the personal information remained accessible long enough to enable a “slew of physical and verbal threats from abortion advocates, some of whom explicitly told the staffer ‘we know where you live.’”
Responding to the incident, a Planned Parenthood representative insisted that the doxing (unapproved leaking of personal identifying information over the internet) was an unintentional result of submitting the necessary information for the legal filings, and that it cooperated when TRTL’s attorneys sought to have the address sealed.
“Any threats of harassment, intimidation, or violence are completely unacceptable and have no place in Texas or anywhere else,” the representative claimed. “Unfortunately, no one knows the trauma of these types of intimidation tactics better than the patients, physicians, nurses, and clinic staff at Planned Parenthood health centers and at abortion clinics nationwide, people who are attacked for seeking or providing essential health care every single day.”
Intentional or not, the hate mail springing from the incident is only the latest in a torrent of abuse the pro-life group has endured for its support of the new Texas law, which requires abortionists to screen for a preborn baby’s heartbeat and prohibits abortion if a heartbeat can be heard (generally as early as six weeks), with exceptions only for medical emergencies.
Unlike most state abortion restrictions, the law “exclusively” relies on private citizens to bring civil suits against abortionists, punishable by a minimum of $10,000 in damages. This unique enforcement mechanism has been credited with its unusual success in court so far; the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to block it this month led to an unprecedented situation in which Texas abortion chains have suspended their abortions beyond six weeks — which in turn has led to unprecedented anger among abortion defenders.
Earlier this month, internet trolls and cyber-attackers targeted Texas Right to Life’s Pro-Life Whistleblower website, where Texans could anonymously report abortionists who commit abortions after finding a heartbeat or without testing for one, by trying to flood it with fake tips and with a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack to try to overwhelm the site’s traffic capacity.
The whistleblower site was temporarily taken down after being dropped by web-hosting services including GoDaddy and Epik, but the pro-life group says it has found a new host and will revive the site in the near future.
Last Friday, the group evacuated its Bellaire office after receiving an emailed bomb threat and a suspicious package. Law enforcement is investigating the matter.
National Review offers additional examples of threatening messages sent to Texas Right to Life since the law’s enactment, including “death and gang rape threats, calls for staff members’ damnation in hell, nude photos, obscenities, and other disturbing harassment.”
One person emailed noose-tying instructions, with a wish for the “scum of the earth” recipients to “get your dues soon.” Another recorded an audio message wishing for TRTL employees to get hit by a car, and still another tweeted that the pro-life group has “provoked the wrath of pro-choice people in 50 states. Just wait until you start getting doxxed.”
Other examples of abuse were stranger and more disturbing, including a direct message letting a staffer know, “I will be casting a hex on you as well as hoping that you are sued to the ground and lose all your money,” and a voicemail declaring, “I love to perform abortions in my own f***ing house and then pickle all the babies and eat them because I f***ing love Satan! … Do you know what’s the best with a pickled baby? A f***ing chili pepper … Have a nice day!”
Ultimately, the fate of the Texas Heartbeat Act and other abortion bans will be decided by the Supreme Court, whether in a future lawsuit about the substance of the law or in an upcoming case concerning Mississippi’s ban on abortion at 15 weeks. All interested parties are anxiously awaiting such a showdown, as it is expected to be the most conclusive test yet as to just how pro-life the Supreme Court’s current majority truly is.