Planned Parenthood has donated to the campaigns of the two California attorneys general who ordered investigations into the undercover journalists whose work led to allegations the abortion giant profits from the sale of the body parts of babies aborted in its clinics.
The allegations led to multiple congressional investigations. Ultimately, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Investigative Panel have referred Planned Parenthood Federation of America, several of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in the country, and three of their business associates in the fetal tissue procurement industry to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
The office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra charged David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) with 15 felonies. The charges were filed following the release of their latest explosive video showing Planned Parenthood officials allegedly discussing how they obtain the highest quality fetal body parts during abortions in order to maximize sales to biotech companies.
Becerra is a former longstanding Democratic congressman who became attorney general after his predecessor, Kamala Harris, was sworn in as a U.S. senator. According to OpenSecrets.org, Becerra received a total of $5,535 from Planned Parenthood during his congressional election bids between 1998 and 2014.
Harris is on record as having received $2,600 in 2016 from Planned Parenthood for her Senate race campaign. Additionally, Harris was the recipient of $39,855 from the Abortion Policy/Pro-Abortion Rights lobby group, according to OpenSecrets.org. ElectionTrack.com reported Harris received $15,000 from Planned Parenthood for her attorney general campaign bids.
A Los Angeles Times column by Robin Abcarian on March 25, 2016 criticized Harris for dragging her feet on Daleiden’s case.
Abcarian wrote:
It took a Texas grand jury only two months to reject claims that Planned Parenthood had illegally trafficked in fetal tissue, and instead indict two antiabortion activists whose elaborate plans blew up in their faces. That was some swift poetic justice.
But what’s taking California so long?
In July, our politically ambitious attorney general, Kamala Harris, vowed to “carefully review” the “Center for Medical Progress.”
Just weeks later, Harris’s deputies seized Daleiden’s personal property following months of investigation into his videos.
The Washington Examiner reports the mainstream media is “silent” on the Planned Parenthood contributions to the campaigns of Becerra and Harris, and observes as well that Lia Parada, a former aide to Becerra, is currently working as a Planned Parenthood lobbyist.
As Breitbart News reported, emails obtained by the Washington Times in September of 2016 showed that Harris’s office collaborated with Planned Parenthood to produce the California legislation criminalizing undercover journalists for publishing and distributing recordings of private communications with abortion providers.
According to the Times:
The documents are another indication of Ms. Harris‘ close relationship with Planned Parenthood and call into question the impartiality of her ongoing investigation of Mr. Daleiden, legal experts said.
The emails show Beth Parker, chief legal counsel for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, sending multiple drafts of AB 1671 to Jill Habig, who was at the time special counsel to the attorney general.
“Attached is the language for AB 1671, proposed amendments to Penal Code section 632,” Ms. Parker wrote in an email marked March 8. “I look forward to your thoughts about this.”
Ms. Parker sent a revised draft of the legislation to Ms. Habig on March 16. “Here’s the rewrite of the video tape bill,” she wrote. “Let me know what you think.”
Habig later became deputy manager of Harris’ U.S. Senate campaign. The campaign website featured a petition asking voters to support and protect Planned Parenthood’s federal funding.
Charges brought against Daleiden and Merritt in Harris County, Texas – under suspicion of bias – were ultimately dropped. One of Planned Parenthood’s biotech partners, StemExpress, also backed off a lawsuit against the videomakers.
In an interview with EWTN, Daleiden said the current charges against him “are really bogus, in a lot of ways.”
He added:
The charges are all based on the California recording law, which is not triggered and isn’t an issue so long as the conversations that are being taped are public conversations happening out in the open, in a public area, which every last video tape that’s referenced in the attorney general’s complaint was. So we weren’t expecting them to file such a, really such a weak case, a case that probably won’t survive a couple of motions to dismiss.
“When it comes to felony charges against our client, David Daleiden, history is on our side,” said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, which is representing the journalists. “When David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were falsely charged in Texas, after they mounted a vigorous defense, the charges were abruptly dropped. We expect that the same will prove true in California.”
Brejcha added that the efforts of Daleiden and Merritt “were furtherance of First Amendment values and are clothed with the same Constitutional protection that all investigative journalists deserve and must enjoy. Undercover journalism has been a vital tool in our politics and self-governance.”
In CMP’s most recent video, Planned Parenthood abortionist Dr. DeShawn Taylor allegedly describes to the video journalists how she delivers intact fetuses during late-term abortions. Taylor also explains the difficulties abortionists face when a baby comes through the procedure with signs of life, and she complains about the laws in a “conservative” state like Arizona, where she once served as medical director of a Planned Parenthood facility.
“In Arizona, if the fetus comes out with any signs of life, we’re supposed to transport it. To the hospital,” she says.
When asked if there is “any standard procedure for verifying signs of life?” Taylor responds by saying, “The key is, you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.