By Michael Hernandez
Americans need to stop federal funding of Planned Parenthood—the corporate “racist” baby killer—especially in the aftermath of Friday’s federal court ruling in San Francisco that awarded the
nation’s largest abortion provider (with annual revenues of more than 1.6 billion) more than two million dollars in damages for the undercover videos produced by David Daleiden and the pro-life activists from the Center for Medical Progress—which they admitted “under oath” were the accurate words their leadership actually said.
In a “rigged” courtroom, the two-day jury deliberation of a case that began on Oct. 3, the jury were instructed by Judge William Orrick, who founded a San Francisco family resource center that houses a Panned Parenthood clinic on his property, to find Daleiden guilty of trespassing at Planned Parenthood conferences and clinics, where Daleiden and others (including grandmother pro-life activist Sandra Merritt) were also to be found guilty of fraud and illegal secret recording.
“I have already determined that these defendants trespassed at each of these locations,” said Judge Orrick as he explained to the jury they must accept his rulings and only decide what damages Planned Parenthood should be awarded under the federal Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law.
The lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of America and no less than 10 regional Planned Parenthood affiliates (including several affiliates under Congressional investigation for their roles in fetal organ trafficking) was pursued in a courtroom of a judge that was pro-abortion as “retaliation” and to “send a message” to any who would oppose abortion providers.
In 2013 and 2014, Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, posing as human tissue procurers for a fake company, secretly video recorded their discussions with Planned Parenthood employees about acquiring fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. These undercover videos of “illegal, unethical, and immoral” practices within the abortion and fetal tissue procurement industries were then released to the public.
The citizen journalists posted the disturbing undercover videos including one in which Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical research described “crushing the “fetus” in a manner that kept internal organs intact to be sold for medical research. Also, caught on video were requests for other specific organs from aborted babies.
Just a few of the reasons that Planned Parenthood should lose federal funding are as follows:
- Privacy arguments do not pertain to illegal actions that are accurately reported by journalists. This is a first amendment issue.
“What this case is really about is the story of what happens when a powerful, large corporation gets a little negative publicity that it doesn’t like and responds by hitting back at a small start-up company and a handful of individuals, said Harmeet Dhillion, an attorney for David Daleiden.
“This case is about undercover reporting, the First Amendment, the rights of ordinary citizens to expose unethical and potentially illegal conduct on the part of large and powerful corporations,” said Paul Jonna, representing Center for Medical Progress undercover investigator Adrian Lopez.
- The pro-life movement is entitled to fight for the life of a baby.
Lila Rose, anti-abortion activist and founder of Live Action, said “Planned Parenthood Judge Orrick—who has well-documented ties to the organization—was clearly incapable of seeing the true criminals here, who are those engaged in the harvesting and sale of the body parts of pre-born children. It is a sad day when the justice system is manipulated by the rich and powerful to protect the guilty and punish the innocent.”
Judge Orrick’s clinic is part of Planned Parenthood Northern California, one of the named Plaintiffs suing the Center for Medical Progress and one of the Planned Parenthood affiliates currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for selling aborted fetal parts to StemExpress. Judge Orrick was also the judge that issued a gag order suppressing the release of CMP’s remaining undercover footage of Planned Parenthood leadership four years ago.
- Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, a “vocal” eugenics (the practice of improving the human race) “racist” enthusiast who wanted to eliminate the black race.
“A black baby loses its life in America every 74 seconds,” according to Lori Hoye of Issues 4 Life Foundation at the Ventura County Content of Character Nov. 2 event. “Abortion has taken over 21 million Black lives in America. Abortion has the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, Black America. If we don’t stop this trajectory, look for black folk (in 25 years) in the Smithsonian.”
Planned Parenthood has stated it does not profit from fetal tissues donations and only collects money to cover procurement costs, as allowed by federal law. It sued Daleiden and his group in 2016, alleging they broke several laws in an effort to further their anti-abortion agenda, which includes pushing Congress to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding. They also were successful in obtaining an injunction to stop the Center for Medical Progress in releasing any additional videos.
Planned Parenthood admitted that the undercover videos accurately recorded the words their leadership actually said.
Other admissions under oath in the San Francisco courtroom:
- Emails from Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast abortion leadership in Houston, TX and testimony from abortion administrator Tram Nguyen revealed they wanted to “move forward”with a draft contract in which “BioMax Procurement Services” would pay $750 per fetal liver.
- Mary Gatter, former Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Medical Director testified that Planned Parenthood Los Angeles was paid a set fee per fetal specimen.
Both examples represent an illegal transaction where the volume of marketable fetal body parts is the quid pro quo.
- Leadership from Planned Parenthood’s Medical Services department testified they do not disagree with statements on the videos by former Planned Parenthood Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola and former Planned Parenthood Orange and San Bernardino Counties Vice President Dr. Jennifer Russo about flipping fetuses in the womb to breech position in order to deliver them intact and harvest more marketable body parts, the hallmark of the criminal partial-birth abortion procedure. Nucatola testified she did not think there was anything wrong with what she described.
- The leadership of Advanced Bioscience Resources, admitted they continue to harvest fetal organs and tissues at Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest and that they regular receive intact fetuses for organ harvesting.
- Planned Parenthood witnesses failed to identify any of the information recorded in CMP’s videos as confidential or proprietary.
In the twin civil San Francisco lawsuits from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, et al vs. CMP, et al and National Abortion Federation vs. CMP, et al., California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, at the behest of Planned Parenthood, was prosecuting both Daleiden and Merritt with 15 felony charges for “confidential” communications (though the conversations recorded took place in open, public areas, where numerous people could and did overheard).
Becerra’s office had alleged that Daleiden and Merritt recorded 14 individuals connected to the abortion and fetal tissue industries in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco and El Dorado without their consent. Previously, the case had been represented on behalf of Planned Parenthood by former California Attorney General Kamala Harris, now a U.S. Senator and candidate for President.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board rebutted Becerra’s actions: “It’s disturbingly aggressive for Becerra to apply this criminal statue to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be. The state doesn’t need to threaten the pair with prison time.”
OpenSecrets.org reported that Becerra received a total of $5,535 from Planned Parenthood during his congressional election bids between 1998 and 2014. Harris received $2,600 in 2016 from Planned Parenthood for her Senate race campaign and was the recipient of $39,855 from the Abortion Policy/Pro-Abortion Rights lobby group.
ElectionTrack.com reported that Harris received $15,000 from Planned Parenthood for her attorney general campaign bids.
A California superior court presided by Judge Christopher Hite had dismissed (June, 2017) 14 of 15 felony charges (because of what was deemed the lack of more specific facts) against the video journalists who exposed alleged profiteering from the sale of body parts of aborted babies within Planned Parenthood and its partners in the biomedical procurement industry. However, the California superior court said the charges could be amended and taken up again.
The Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden are represented in the civil lawsuits by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, the Thomas More Society, the Dhillon Law Group. The lead attorneys for Daleiden are: Steve Cooley, three-times elected District Attorney of Los Angele County, Brent Fereira, former LA County Deputy District Attorney, Harmeet Dhillion, and Charles LiMandri.
Horatio Mihet of Liberty Counsel is representing Sandra Merritt and Paul Jonna is representing CMP undercover investigator Adrian Lopez. The American Center for Law and Justice is representing Troy Newman, a former CMP board member.
Planned Parenthood has stated it does not profit from fetal tissues donations and only collects money to cover procurement costs, as allowed by federal law. It sued Daleiden and his group in 2016, alleging they broke several laws in an effort to further their anti-abortion agenda, which includes pushing Congress to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding. They also were successful in obtaining an injunction to stop the Center for Medical Progress in releasing any additional videos.
Daleiden’s response after the superior court decision: “This is a politically motivated prosecution. And this is discriminatory against pro-life Americans and a rally against Californians who happen to have a different point of view.”
Daleiden response after the federal court decision in San Francisco: “Justice was not done today in San Francisco. The rigged verdict Judge Orrick was able to extract from the jury to feed Planned Parenthood’s media narrative is not the last word on this bogus hoax of a lawsuit.”
Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group, representing Daleiden, CMP, and BioMax, states, “While we are disappointed in today’s verdict, we intend to pursue numerous issues on appeal. The jury worked with limited information and with a number of legal and factual outcomes predetermined by the Court.
“This verdict, if allowed to stand, seriously threatens the ability of undercover journalists – such as David Daleiden, Sandra Merritt, Adrian Lopez, and the ABC journalists in the 20/20 undercover video played in court showing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in fetal tissue trafficking 19 years ago – to document and expose illegal practices, such as Planned Parenthood’s illegal fetal tissue sales and abortion procedures.
“This verdict will not be the last word on these weighty factual, legal, and moral issues – like life, they are too important to leave undefended.”
“This lawsuit is payback for David Daleiden exposing Planned Parenthood’s dirty business of buying and selling fetal parts and organs,” adds Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, representing Daleiden. “Rather than face up to its heinous doings, Planned Parenthood chose to persecute the person who exposed it. I am fully confident that when this case has run its course, justice will prevail, and David will be vindicated.”
“This case puts the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech on trial. It tests the sacred tenet of freedom of the press,” explains Thomas More Society president Tom Brejcha. “Planned Parenthood decided that it was above the law. Planned Parenthood was wrong, and I am confident that we will win on appeal.
“Planned Parenthood won a temporary victory today and obtained a jury verdict in their favor against David Daleiden and his co-defendants. The verdict is the natural product of Judge Orrick’s erroneous legal rulings,” remark Lead Trial Counsel Charles LiMandri and defense attorney Paul Jonna, of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, representing Daleiden, CMP, BioMax, and Adrian Lopez.
(Editor’s Note: To see two of the contested undercover videos go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkBIWjoV-Oo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LPlHjP1DVw).
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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