Texas Anti-Abortion Group 'Urges Extremists to Kidnap Women on Way to Clinics'

An anti-abortion group has vehemently denied it urged extremists to kidnap women on the way to terminate their pregnancies after another group made the suggestion on its Facebook page.

A group known as "Praying for you" posted on the Abolish Human Abortion Facebook page urging them to kidnap women by pretending to be involved with Cicada Collective, an anonymous community organisation that provides abortion services to women.

Texas is one of the strictest states in the US for its laws on abortion. Earlier this month, a federal court allowed new abortion restrictions that require doctors performing abortions to have privileges to admit patients to nearby hospitals. It also limits the use of abortion-inducing drugs.

Praying for you suggested Abolish Human Abortion supporters should infiltrate the Cicada Collective by pretending to volunteer for the organisation as drivers. It also shared a contact email for the collective.

"It's the email address being used by a group backed by Fund Texas Women and Lilith Fund looking around for volunteers to shuttle women around for their abortion appointments," it said.

"Consider volunteering yourself. I'm not suggesting you actually take a woman to an abortion clinic but it's a wonderful opportunity to minister to an abortion minded woman for an hour while you don't take her to her clinic.

"And hey, even if you can't change her mind, by the time she gets out of your car and realises she is at a church and not the clinic she's missed her appointment anyway."

Cicada Collective was made aware of the post and warned women about the threat: "Anti-choicers attempting to infiltrate was bound to happen at some point right? Here is a concerning message we got this morning. Other groups out there wanting to provide practical support to people seeking abortion care in Texas, please be careful."

A number of people also got in touch with Abolish Human Abortion warning them that kidnapping women is a felony and condemning them for appearing to support the proposal.

In response, the group strongly denied having any involvement with the extremist group that suggested kidnapping women, saying it had been written by pro-choice campaigners in an attempt to "slander" the group. The original post also appears to have been deleted by the group.

"A strange thing happens when people love their sin and are addicted to death but can't justify their brutality against their fellow man. When they run out of slogans and their empty rhetoric is exposed some people repent of their rebellion against God.

"Tragically others are so determined to persist in suppressing the truth in unrighteousness that they turn to increasingly desperate and pathetic tactics in an attempt to run from their maker.

"They do things like creating fake accounts to post crazy and unlawful suggestions on our wall, take screen caps of their own crazy post and then spread it around amongst themselves and spam our page and inbox with it in an attempt to slander us.

"AHA has nothing to do with any attempts to violate the rights or the human dignity of any human being ... Be strong in the Lord abolitionists. Keep focused. Don't look to the right or to the left. Abolish Human Abortion."