Exactly 6 months after the first of several heavily edited tapes were released, Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit this afternoon against David Daleiden and his band of distortion artists known as the Center For Medical Progress. Daleiden and 5 other people broke multiple state and federal laws while filming several distorted and edited undercover videos maligning the organization.
Nina Liss-Schultz at Mother Jones:
The series of videos, released this summer by the secretive group the Center for Medical Progress, purported to show Planned Parenthood staff and other abortion care professionals discussing how to traffic fetal tissue for profit. Donating fetal tissue for medical research is legal in the United States, as is receiving reimbursement for the costs associated with that donation. Only two states have fetal tissue donation programs and Planned Parenthood has categorically denied that it has profited from it. Both state and federal investigations into the group's donation programs have found no evidence of wrongdoing. In the fall, Planned Parenthood announced that they would no longer be accepting reimbursement for donations but will pay for it.
[...]
The federal lawsuit accuses CMP of racketeering, illegally creating and using fake driver's licenses, invading the privacy of and illegally recording Planned Parenthood officials and staff. The suit describes CMP as a "complex criminal enterprise conceived and executed by anti-abortion extremists," and says that "the aim of the fake enterprise—which stretched over years and involved fake companies, fake identifications, and large-scale illegal taping, was to demonize Planned Parenthood."
Harassment, threats, and attacks against abortion providers surged nine-fold after the release of the first video in July. And Congressional and state lawmakers have used the debunked videos as reasons to defund or restrict the activities of Planned Parenthood. Ten states have introduced legislation restricting either the process of fetal tissue donation or its use in biomedical research. The House and Senate both approved measures to defund the group, which is the nation's largest provider of women's health, serving nearly 3 million Americans every year. States have also moved to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates, though those attempts have largely been blocked.
Sally Kohn at The Daily Beast:
What Planned Parenthood does is legal. What was done to Planned Parenthood by the Center for Medical Progress its co-conspirators was not.
And so today, Planned Parenthood announced that it is filing a civil lawsuit and seeking damages for the illegal act that led to a series of fraudulent videos misrepresenting fetal tissue donations.
After a lengthy and scrupulous private investigation to determine those involved in making the videos and the extent and nature of their conspiracy and illegal acts, Planned Parenthood filed a civil lawsuit in California state court. The lawsuit names the Center for Medical Progress, Biomax Procurement Services, and several individuals including David Daleiden, Troy Newman, Albin Rhomberg, Phillip S. Cronin, Gerardo Adrian Lopez, and Sandra Susan Merritt.
According to Planned Parenthood, the involvement and/or names of some of those being sued—who either directly illegally recording the secret videos or were leaders in the conspiracy to do so—were not publicly known until now.
Planned Parenthood filed a federal civil suit on Thursday against several individuals representing the Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group that secretly recorded Planned Parenthood staff and executives discussing the donation of fetal tissue.
The suit alleges that CMP project lead David Daleiden and five other people broke state and federal law by creating false identities, engaging in mail and wire fraud, breaking confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and violating privacy by illegally recording conversations. It also names CMP and BioMax, a fake medical firm, as defendants.
Exactly six months after the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress released its first secretly recorded video accusing Planned Parenthood of trafficking in fetal tissue, the women’s health provider has filed suit in a San Francisco federal district court.
The suit alleges that the Center for Medical Progress and its contributors and advisers, who are individually named, broke federal and state laws, including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, as well as invasion of privacy and recording laws. It asks for extensive monetary damages, saying Planned Parenthood providers have faced death threats, been forced to move or go into hiding and been picketed at their homes.
Named as defendants are the Center for Medical Progress, Biomax Procurement Services LLC, David Daleiden (aka Robert Sarkis), Troy Newman, Albin Rhomberg, Phillip S. Cronin, Sandra Susan Merritt (aka Susan Tennebaum) and Gerardo Adrian Lopez.
Planned Parenthood Action’s Twitter on the lawsuit:
I hope they’re taken down hard for their actions!