Charges dropped against pro-life journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of aborted baby parts

Image credit: David Daleiden / Liberty Counsel 

In what has been hailed a “complete victory”, two pro-life journalists who went undercover, and exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of aborted baby parts, have had charges against them dropped.

According to Live Action, almost a decade ago, two pro-life journalists - founder of the Centre for Medical Progress (CMP), David Daleiden, and Sandra Merritt - came under criminal investigation under then-California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, after going undercover and releasing a series of videos that exposed the involvement of Planned Parenthood in the trafficking of aborted baby parts.

Videos that were released by CMP showed Planned Parenthood workers haggling over prices during events, dinners and in their own offices. One video, has abortionist Deborah Nucatola discuss how she illegally altered the abortion procedure to harvest the baby’s body parts better. Another featured Dr Mary Gatter who during her haggling for baby parts is known for saying “I want a I want a Lamborghini.”

“The recordings capture Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the prices of baby body parts, picking through bloodied arms and legs of aborted babies in a pie tray, and discussing how to alter abortion methods to avoid violating partial-birth abortion law and obtain more profitable body parts to sell,” said Liberty Counsel, who represented Ms Merritt.

After both journalists came under fire from the establishment- which involved the raiding of Mr Daleiden’s home - both were charged for violating California’s recording law by the next General Attorney Xavier Becerra, although Liberty Counsel said that no undercover journalist has been prosecuted for recordings made in the public interest.

This week, after an almost 10-year battle, the charges against both pro-lifers have been dropped after agreeing to a plea deal, which includes no prison time or fines for the journalists.

In a statement on the case, Liberty Counsel said: “Merritt will serve no prison time, will pay no fines, and will have no other penalties imposed for revealing the truth about Planned Parenthood. The deal is essentially a complete victory for Merritt in this politically-motivated criminal case.”

The Found and Chairman of the organisation, Matt Staver, also commented saying, “Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry. This plea agreement ends an unjust criminal case by dropping these baseless criminal charges without any prison time, fines or other penalties. Sandra deserves to be applauded and acclaimed for revealing these horrors and then enduring this selective and vindictive prosecution as a result. Murdering human babies to harvest their body parts for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution. This is an extraordinary result for Sandra and the State of California deserves to walk away virtually empty handed.”  

“After 9 years of unprecedented political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts. Now we must all get to work to protect families and infants from the criminal abortion-industrial complex,” Mr Daleiden told Live Action News.

Sandra Parda of the Life Institute commented, saying: “This is fantastic news! Bravo to both Mr Daleiden and Ms Merritt for standing up to expose the truth about Planned Parenthood and thank God that this unjust trial has come to a good end for them both! As hard as it can be, we must always be prepared to stand against the injustice done by abortion providers, and it is cases like these that remind us that in the end, life will always win!”