CA Drops Charges Against Pro-Life Activists’ for Release of Undercover Videos
By Kenneth Schrupp | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a plea agreement has been reached to result in no jail time for activists who recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood staff about the procurement and sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.
In 2015, then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 charges against David Robert Daleiden and, as a co-conspirator, Sandra Merritt, for illegally recording private conversations without the other parties’ consent by posing as buyers for a medical company.
The undercover recordings released by Daleiden, who serves as Project Lead at the pro-life Center for Medical Progress, show a senior Planned Parenthood director meeting with him to discuss the sale of tissue from aborted babies, and includes a description from the Planned Parenthood staffer about the abortion process and what tissues are easiest to save for sale for medical research.
“The agreement — a negotiated settlement with zero punishment — is in exchange for a new “no contest” plea by Daleiden and Merritt on a single video recording charge,” said the CMP in a statement.
CMP also noted that Daleiden’s investigation resulted in a $7.8 million settlement in which two companies admitted to illegally selling aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood in Southern California.
While it is legal for buyers to pay for processing costs, it is illegal to sell fetal tissue for prices in excess of reasonable processing costs. Just months after Daleiden released the videos in July 2015, Planned Parenthood announced it would no longer be accepting reimbursement for fetal tissue.
Bonta’s office celebrated the agreement as a win for abortion care access, and as a contrast to the Trump administration, which last week pardoned 23 individuals who were convicted for blockading abortion centers.
“While the Trump Administration is issuing pardons to individuals convicted of harming reproductive health clinics and providers, my office is securing criminal convictions to ensure that Californians can exercise their constitutional rights to reproductive healthcare,” Bonta said in a statement. “We will not hesitate to continue taking action against those who threaten access to abortion care — whether by recording confidential conversations or other means.”