San Francisco – Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against the anti-abortion activists that produced a series of secretly recorded videos where the family planning provider’s staffers talk about fetal tissue donations. The heavily edited videos, which were released last year allegedly, show that the women’s health organization illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses for profit.
The anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress released a series of videos in July claiming to show Planned Parenthood staffers negotiating prices for aborted fetal tissue, which is illegal under federal law, even though it can be used for research when it’s donated.
The videos appears to show medical officials negotiating the price of fetal tissue, however, the original unedited footage shows the same staffers insisting that Planned Parenthood does not aim to profit from the donations, only to recover the costs of transporting and preserving the tissue after an abortion.
The women’s health organization claims that no staff member was involved in any crime and she maintained that the organization does not profit from its fetal tissue donation program and that the videos were edited in a way to misinform the public.
Officials with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its California affiliates Planned Parenthood alleged in the lawsuit that the activists engaged in criminal misconduct in order to spread malicious lies about the organization.
The complaint reads that the Center for Medical Progress broke multiple federal laws, including violations of the Racketeer Influence, which refers to fraudulent services offered to solve a problem that does not actually exist, as well as Corrupt Organization Act, engaging in mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording and trespassing.
“This lawsuit exposes the elaborate, illegal conspiracy designed to block women’s access to safe and legal abortion,” Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said in a prepared statement.
On the other hand, The Center for Medical Progress reacted towards the lawsuit calling it frivolous. The group says it is a move of desperation that is going to expose all of the “sordid dealings” of the California Planned Parenthood affiliates.
David Daleiden, project leader for the Center for Medical Progress and the primary activist behind the videos said he is looking forward to defeating the CEOs, medical directors who participated in what he says is an illegal baby body parts conspiracy.
Last November 3 people were killed in a shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Robert Lewis Dear came into the health center and began shooting killing 3 people and leaven other 9 wounded. Authorities said the motive had not been yet established but Dear said in court he was a warrior for the babies.
Source: Washington Post