Hackers Shut Down Planned Parenthood’s Website

Last night hackers reportedly hit Planned Parenthood’s website with a DDoS attack, and it has been down ever since. The attack comes in the wake of mounting controversy over a series of tapes that allege that Planned Parenthood is profiting off of the illegal sale of fetal tissue, which Planned Parenthood denies. According to a statement on the organization’s Facebook page, 200,000 use PlannedParenthood.org every day to find doctors, resources, and answers to questions about STDs and reproductive health. (For those who don’t think women are “people,” rest assured, men use Planned Parenthood’s website, too.)

”This is a new low for anti-abortion extremists,” said Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president Dawn Laguens to CNN. ”200,000 people a day count on Planned Parenthood’s website for accurate health information. Blocking people from accessing information on the full range of sexual and reproductive health ”” including birth control, sexually transmitted infections, healthy relationships, parenting, and preventative care ”” only shows how far opponents of safe and legal abortion will go.”

While the site is still down, the address takes a person to a page that says “our site is currently undergoing maintenance.” People looking for doctors are urged to use an actual telephone to call and book an appointment. People trying to find an actual Planned Parenthood location to go to are sent to Google Maps to look one up that way.

According to CNN, nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and commenters on the Planned Parenthood Facebook page are alleging all sorts of wild conspiracy theories, including that Planned Parenthood took down its own website in a fake hacker attack as a ploy to get donations. (Planned Parenthood has another site set up, through which supporters can donate their time or money to the organization.) But as The Cut points out, this is the second time this week that hackers have targeted Planned Parenthood. Earlier this week anti-abortion hackers attacked the organizations databases and released private information about employee names and email addresses.

(Photo: PlannedParenthood.org)