After a series of videos released last summer raised inflammatory accusations that Planned Parenthood was callously profiting from the sale of fetal tissue, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas asked a county prosecutor to investigate the organization. She did.
On Monday, the prosecutor announced that the grand jury convened for that investigation of Planned Parenthood instead brought charges against the makers of the smearing videos.
According to Planned Parenthood, Texas is now the 11th state that has investigated the organization and cleared it of wrongdoing. Another eight states declined to launch investigations because of the lack of evidence.
Despite the assertions of the fraudulently obtained and deeply misleading videos, Planned Parenthood does not profit from fetal tissue donations. In other words, Planned Parenthood has done nothing illegal. However, says the grand jury, it appears the makers of the videos have.
David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the two individuals involved in making the secret recordings, were indicted on charges of tampering with a governmental record — they are accused of making fake California driver’s licenses — a second-degree felony. Daleiden was also indicted on the charge of prohibition of the purchase and sale of human organs, a class A misdemeanor.
How twisted that these anti-abortion extremists allegedly stooped to criminal activity to try to smear the lawful work of Planned Parenthood. The fact is that in spite of the right’s continual efforts at restraints and restrictions, abortion remains legal throughout the United States, as it thankfully has been since Roe vs Wade, which marked its 43rd anniversary last week.
And fetal tissue donations, used for research in everything from the polio vaccine to finding a cure for cancer, are also, thankfully, legal — incidentally, through laws passed with bipartisan support.
However, manufacturing false government identification to gain entry to confidential meetings and appearing to intend to buy or sell organs is illegal. Recently, Planned Parenthood announced it was filing a civil suit in California against the individuals associated with the Center for Medical Progress who made the videos. It alleges they lied to get into meetings they secretly recorded, setting up a fake company and identities to do so.
The suit accuses them of committing wire and mail fraud, as well as invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording and trespassing. Now criminal charges in Texas are added to that list.
What’s perversely striking is that in their supposed moral quest to “preserve life,” anti-abortion extremists have resorted not only to crime but also to inciting violence. Anti-abortion activists say the lies spread by these videos led to an eightfold increase in threats against Planned Parenthood clinics across the country.
And the rhetoric of the video campaign was referenced by Robert Dear, the man accused of a massacre at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last year.
Planned Parenthood is a vital health care organization that provides care to millions of women and men every year, including access to safe and legal abortion.
If you’re looking for the criminals in this scenario, look to the manipulative video makers indicted by the Harris County grand jury