Texans are trolling an anonymous tip line for reporting suspected abortions

With the “heartbeat” bill going into effect as Texas law next month, a conservative group has created a website where individuals can anonymously name suspected violators of the law, such as Goody Procter or Giles Corey.

Some Texans, however, are using the site to troll the group.

Conservative group Texas Right to Life set up prolifewhistleblower.com, a website site that has a form where whistleblowers can write out details of the supposed violations, including doctors behind the alleged abortion, and even upload files to support their claim if they wish.

Texas' bill-to-be, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed back in May, is considered one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country.

Though the bill is set to go into law on September 1, some are already using the site to submit fake tips. Many trolls are including photos of pornography, some in reference to animated characters like Shrek.

The trolls are not only giving a headache to whoever has to go through the anonymous tips, but standing up for Texas women in the process. Once law, Senate Bill 8 dramatically limits legal access to abortions to two weeks after a missed menstrual cycle, which is early enough in a pregnancy that women may not even know they are pregnant. The law will also let private citizens sue those who provide abortions and anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks, even if they're outside the state of Texas.

The buzz around the website comes just over a month after abortion providers and advocates sued Texas leaders to stop the law from going into effect as it interferes with a Texas woman's right to control her reproductive health.

In a tweet from August 23, Texas Right to Life claims it would not contact whistleblowers, but would instead “do the rest” once anonymous tips were received. The organization doesn’t clarify exactly what that means or what it would do with the information, but concerned Texans didn’t care to find out. Some Reddit users questioned the validity of the submissions not coming from trolls, for a multitude of reasons.

“People will use it to report ex-girlfriends, girls they don’t like,” points out u/Dan-68. “This has lots of potential for misuse as a form of revenge.”

“Can you imagine if you have a miscarriage, are very emotional, and your neighbor reports you?” questions u/redtron3030.

Others pointed out that the website is from a private group, not a governmental entity.

“This website has no affiliation with [the] Texas state government, these reports go to private parties,” reminds u/D14BL0.

“What a massive invasion of privacy,” says u/DrLipschitz69.

Overall, however, many users simply stuck to trolling Texas Right to Life.

“I saw someone uploading Shrek porn to it all day,” claims u/c0nkah.

“I'm definitely sending in pictures of my menstrual cup dump outs when I get the opportunity in a couple weeks,” admits u/cordial_carbonara.

“An anonymous tip website with the ability to send pictures? The solution here is simple,” says a confident u/chopandscrew. “Send them pictures of your poop.”

One user, u/Mr_Prestonius, said that since the site is hosted through GoDaddy, it will have to abide by the company’s rules. One of those rules includes not collecting “non-public or personally identifiable information” about another person without their written consent, meaning that all non-trolling submissions that include a real person’s information would not be allowed.

A number of Reddit users, including u/Mr_Prestonius, said they have reported the website for violating this rule, and it may have resulted in the website giving error messages at times on Wednesday.

Trolls, you might actually win this one. Stay tuned, Texas.