Planned Parenthood’s national organization and its California affiliate have announced a federal lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the pro-life group that produced a series of videos last summer exposing the abortion business’s apparent practices of selling the body parts of aborted babies and altering the position of babies during abortion in order to harvest their intact organs.
The complaint against CMP – the court proceedings which Planned Parenthood’s attorney, Beth Parker, reportedly said could go on for as long as 18 months – describes the pro-life group as:
[A] complex criminal enterprise conceived and executed by anti-abortion extremists. The express aim of the enterprise – which stretched over years and involved fake companies, fake identifications, and large-scale illegal taping – was to demonize Planned Parenthood, harass and intimidate its dedicated staff, and interrupt its operations, all with the ultimate goal of interfering with women’s access to legal abortion.
“Today, Planned Parenthood is going on the offense,” Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California said – according to The Hill – in a call with reporters to which Breitbart News journalists were shut out.
Planned Parenthood sent out registration information to participate in its phone conference, in which it announced its lawsuit against CMP. Though two Breitbart News journalists registered for the phone conference, neither received the call-in information allowing them to participate.
The abortion business – which is under investigation by several congressional committees for potentially criminal activity – claims that CMP and its organizer David Daleiden have violated the laws of three states as well as federal law.
Daleiden released a statement that said, “game on.”
“I look forward to deposing all the CEOs, Medical Directors, and their co-conspirators who participated in Planned Parenthood’s illegal baby body parts racket,” he said.
CMP also released the following statement in response to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit filing:
Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the United States Congress and multiple law enforcement agencies, while their business is drying up and the public is turning against their barbaric abortion for baby parts trade. Now they are filing a frivolous lawsuit in retaliation for CMP’s First Amendment investigative journalism that has done nothing more than tell the truth about Planned Parenthood’s lawless operations. This last-ditch move of desperation is going to expose all of the sordid dealings of the California Planned Parenthood affiliates to the light of the legal system and the public will see them for the corrupt abortion and baby body parts profiteers that they really are.
CMP states there are four questions that Planned Parenthood still cannot answer:
1) How much money total did Planned Parenthood receive from StemExpress from 2010 to 2015?
2) Why is Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services talking about manipulating fetuses to breech position to get better organs?
3) Why did a Planned Parenthood Medical Director endorse a StemExpress advertisement for “financial profits” from fetal tissue donation if Planned Parenthood does not support profiting from fetal tissue?
4) Since the President of the Medical Directors’ Council said “we didn’t really have to do anything” when letting Novogenix Laboratories, LLC harvest fetal tissue, why did Novogenix pay Planned Parenthood?
Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, Dawn Laguens, alleged that CMP has “colluded with right-wing state legislators and members of Congress” in their attack.
“The complaint we filed today, names for the first time, the key individuals behind this fraud. They are some of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion activists,” Laguens said.
In response, Rep. Diane Black – member of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus – said, “This is the Planned Parenthood way.”
Black continued in a statement:
They are confronted with a horrific truth they cannot defend, so they seek a victory in the courts instead. It won’t work. Thanks to the courageous efforts of the Center for Medical Progress, a veil was lifted and the American people were able to see Planned Parenthood’s callous disrespect for life with their own eyes. These videos have been proven to be authentic – no matter how many times Cecile Richards says otherwise – and no one can deny that they clearly depict Planned Parenthood’s own employees, in their own words, offering stunning admissions of what happens behind closed doors. Instead of attacking the messenger, perhaps it’s time for Planned Parenthood to take a good look in the mirror. This is the grim reality of today’s big abortion business and it is long past time to prevent taxpayers from being forced to foot the bill.
Planned Parenthood is reportedly still weighing the amount of money they will seek in damages.
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