Texas Grand Jury Indicts Activists Over Planned Parenthood Video
Back in mid-2015, a video surfaced on the Internet that appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the illegal sale of fetal tissues to undercover activists. Well, a Texas grand jury has indicted the two responsible for making the video on multiple counts.
The two anti-abortion activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, were indicted yesterday on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. Daleiden received an additional misdemeanor charge of “prohibition of the purchase and sale of human organs,” according to USA Today.
The grand jury was originally tasked with trying to find any wrongdoing by the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast facility, but did not do so due to a lack of evidence.
While the current charges don’t specify exactly what kind of tampering was done, it appears that a common belief that the activists edited the video to make it appear that Planned Parenthood was illegally selling aborted fetuses may be true.
After creating a fake human-tissue company, Daleiden and Marritt met with and secretly recorded Planned Parenthood workers as they discusses the disposal of fetal tissue to make it appear that they weren’t adhering to the legal methods of donating them for medical research.
“These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda. As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it’s become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we’re glad they’re being held accountable,” Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
Daleiden still stands by his actions in a recently published op-ed for USA Today.
“Six months after these revelations broke, Planned Parenthood still cannot deny that the shocking and indicting words on the videos were spoken by its own senior level leadership,” he said.
Planned Parenthood officials have sued multiple individuals involved in the making of the video and claim that, since its release, the number of violent attacks against Planned Parenthood facilities has increased.