Anti-abortion hackers claim to have breached Planned Parenthood

Anti-abortion hackers have apparently hit Planned Parenthood, potenially leaking the reproductive healthcare organization’s internal data and employee information.

The hackers are also threatening to release the nonprofit group’s internal emails, according to The Daily Dot, which first reported the possible intrusion.

{mosads}“Trying to mold an atrocious monstrosity into socially acceptable behaviors is repulsive,” one of the hackers, who goes by the name of “E,” told The Daily Dot. “Obviously what [Planned Parenthood] does is a very ominous practice. It’ll be interesting to see what surfaces when [Planned Parenthood] is stripped naked and exposed to the public.”

Planned Parenthood said it is investigating the incident, but hadn’t yet confirmed an actual breach. 

“We’ve seen the claims around attempts to access our systems. We take security very seriously and are investigating,” said Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood executive vice president, in a statement.

“It’s unsurprising that those opposed to safe and legal abortion are participating in this campaign of harassment against us and our patients, and claiming to stoop to this new low,” she added.

The potential attack comes after a week of heated political debate about Planned Parenthood.

Last week, anti-abortion advocates released another edited video that showed an organization official discussing the costs and methods of preserving fetal tissue for donation. The advocates had posed as buyers from a medical research company to get the meeting.

The videos spurred arguments on the airwaves and on Capitol Hill about the practice, and led to renewed calls to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding.

The hackers that targeted the organization appeared to be driven by the videos as well.

“We’ve noticed quite a lot of attention has been diverted to a supposedly malicious organization known as Planned Parenthood,” the hackers said in a message posted to the website where the group’s alleged data was dumped.

“The actions of this ‘federation’ are not seen as right in the eyes of the public. So here we are, the social justice warriors, seeking to reclaim some sort of lulz for the years and thousands of dollars that Planned Parenthood have wasted and made harvesting your babies.”

The digital activists have not given a timeline on when they will decrypt and release the Planned Parenthood emails they claim to have taken.

— Updated 12:02 p.m.