Anti-Abortion Activists Who Secretly Filmed Planned Parenthood Charged With Felonies

[GennGreymane]

http://time.com/4716160/anti-abortio...alflow_twitter

(LOS ANGELES) — California prosecutors on Tuesday charged two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood with 15 felonies, saying they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent.

The charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress come eight months after similar charges were dropped in Texas.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state "will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations."

Prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, California, and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Daleiden said in an email to The Associated Press that the "bogus" charges are coming from "Planned Parenthood's political cronies."
"The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners," Daleiden said.

The conversations included officials from Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a California company that provides blood, tissue and other biological material for medical research and had received fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood.

In one of the pair's videos, Daleiden poses as "Robert Sarkis" of the phony Biomax Procurement Services and is shown discussing liver tissue with the chief executive of StemExpress at a Northern California restaurant.

Abortion opponents said the recordings showed Planned Parenthood was illegally harvesting and selling the organs. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited to support extremists' false claims.

"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," said Mary Alice Carter, interim vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood, in a statement.

In April of last year, Daleiden said in a Facebook post that California Department of Justice agents raided his home, seizing all of his video footage along with personal information.

Since then the case had gone largely quiet, with virtually no revelations about the investigation and no indication that the charges were coming before they were filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court.
The case is one of the first of high-profile prosecutions for Becerra, who left the U.S. House to take over for Kamala Harris after she became a U.S. Senator.

Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January of 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing turned around and indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead.The videos reignited the American abortion debate when they were released in 2015, and increased Congressional heat against Planned Parenthood that has yet to subside.

[zenkai]

http://time.com/4716160/anti-abortio...alflow_twitter

I am betting Trump will pardon them if they are convicted.

[Deleted]

Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

[TZucchini]

Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

LAWBREAKERS MUST BE PUNISHED!!!!!!!!! WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS!!!!!!!!!!

Unless they're doing something that I like. Then it's OK.

[Deleted]

LAWBREAKERS MUST BE PUNISHED!!!!!!!!! WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS!!!!!!!!!!

Unless they're doing something that I like. Then it's OK.

Oh no they should be punished.

But they're still doing god's work.

[zenkai]

LAWBREAKERS MUST BE PUNISHED!!!!!!!!! WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS!!!!!!!!!!

Unless they're doing something that I like. Then it's OK.

CA, protecting people entering the country - No problem! People filming others without concent - this shit needs to stop!

Never Change CA, Never Change.

[LordKain]

Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

Which god? There are so many these days...

[Thepersona]

I am betting Trump will pardon them if they are convicted.

I bet on your side. Suposing that trump isnt impeached before

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Which god? There are so many these days...

Well, god in fact pardoned and even encouraged abortion in some cases.
And the church pardoned abortion till the 1800s

[TZucchini]

Oh no they should be punished.

But they're still doing god's work.

Why would you punish someone for doing god's work? That's the dumbest possible position to hold.

[Barael]

Why would you punish someone for doing god's work? That's the dumbest possible position to hold.

What I want to know is why god isn't doing his goddamn work.

[Aggrophobic]

Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

You'd think he'd be able to do it himself...

[Deleted]

Its embarressing for the USA that theyre having a discussion that the rest of the civilised world dealt with decades ago.

Their Christian fundamentalists are making a comeback and trying to make abortion illegal... this reminds me of the kind of law that Sharia law wants too.

[sarahtasher]

No no guys, you dont understand : it's rabid fundies doing it, so it' okay and they can lies. Laws are optional when they are not in the Bible. Especially the bit where Jesus pull out a Glock and shoot the Pharisians.

[Spectral]

Its embarressing for the USA that theyre having a discussion that the rest of the civilised world dealt with decades ago.

Their Christian fundamentalists are making a comeback and trying to make abortion illegal... this reminds me of the kind of law that Sharia law wants too.

You're aware that abortion is generally illegal in the UK after the 24th week, right?

I'm generally quite pro-choice, but the idea that this is just settled morality, nothing but a simple her body her choice, and that no restrictions whatsoever are ever appropriate is basically just propaganda from a small set of people. Most places have some minimal restrictions in place. The United States has a weird patchwork of laws because of the framework of having states, but the overall effect isn't a ton different than a typical first-world country (like the UK).

[Berengil]

I'm generally quite pro-choice, but the idea that this is just settled morality, nothing but a simple her body her choice, and that no restrictions whatsoever are ever appropriate is basically just propaganda from a small set of people.

Shouldn't be any, imo. Until a woman pushes it out, I just simply don't care. It might as well be a turd.

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Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

prove it.

Oh wait I forgot, you can't.

[Spectral]

Shouldn't be any, imo. Until a woman pushes it out, I just simply don't care. It might as well be a turd.

Yeah, I realize this has become the hip position to hold, but it's pretty hard to be philosophically consistent about it and not also support infanticide as a mother's choice.

Less insane positions recognize competing rights of mother and fetus/infant rather than trying to draw a bright line of totally-no-more-value-than-poop and totally-a-person.

[Deleted]

You're aware that abortion is generally illegal in the UK after the 24th week, right?

So what?

The UK had its abortion discussion decades ago and we are generally happy with our laws.... so whats your point?

[Berengil]

Yeah, I realize this has become the hip position to hold, but it's pretty hard to be philosophically consistent about it and not also support infanticide as a mother's choice.

My position is quite consistent: once it's out, it enjoys the same protections as you or I do. Before that, it's part of her, like nails or hair.

Idk about "hip", I'm in my early 40s and I've felt this way since my parents tried to preach at me all the time when i was a kid in the 80s.

[Toosdey]

I am betting Trump will pardon them if they are convicted.

If he does, he will get a bigger shit storm then he could ever expect.

[NihilSustinet]

Doing god's work as far as I'm concerned.

they also doctored the footage and made it seem like something happened that didn't. that's fraud. thats why they are being charged, among other reasons.