Courageous Pro-Life Activists Who Filmed Planned Parenthood Selling Baby Parts Being Punished; Facing 15 Felony Charges in Calif.
The anti-abortion rights activists who produced undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood were charged Tuesday with 15 felonies by California prosecutors.
The Associated Press reported that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the charges Tuesday for David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.
Between October 2013 and July 2015, the two allegedly filmed 14 people without permission in three different California counties. Fourteen charges were for each individual film, with a final charge of criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Daleiden called the charges “bogus” and said they were from “Planned Parenthood’s political cronies.”
“The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners,” Daleiden said in an email to the AP.
The video makers had been indicted last year in Texas. Last July, a Texas judge dismissed the final charge against the pair.
That charge, tampering with a government record, was related to using a fake driver’s license to gain access to meetings with Planned Parenthood officials.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office pointed to legal limitations on what the grant jury could investigate after its time was extended.
A string of state investigations have found no wrongdoing or evidence that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit, as the videos alleged.
Planned Parenthood said the new charges send “a clear message.”
“As we have said from the beginning, and as more than a dozen different state investigations have made clear: Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong, and the only people who broke the law are those behind the fraudulent tapes,” Interim Vice President of Communications Mary Alice Carter said in a statement. “The California Attorney General filing criminal charges sends a clear message that you cannot target women and you cannot target health care providers without consequences. We look forward to justice being served.”
