Grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood instead indicts creators of undercover videos
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Warren, Michigan. Katherine Welles / Shutterstock.com
A grand jury in Houston investigating Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who created undercover videos in an attempt to show the group sells fetal body parts.
The Harris County grand jury on Monday indicted David Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress, and one of his employees, Sandra Merritt, on charges of tampering with a government record, report the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle. Daleiden is also charged with a misdemeanor related to buying human tissue.
The record-tampering charge is based on accusations that Daleiden and Merritt made and presented fake California driver’s licenses to security officials at an April meeting at Planned Parenthood in Houston, according to the New York Times story.
Members of the group have posted undercover footage of discussions with Planned Parenthood officials regarding the sale of fetal tissue. Federal law allows the sale of fetal tissue from abortion clinics as long as the sellers do not profit and the women donating the tissue give consent, according to a prior New York Times story. Money can be collected only to cover expenses. Planned Parenthood has said the center created a fake company and fake identities in the undercover operation.
The misdemeanor charge apparently relates to Daleiden’s offer to buy fetal organs as part of his bid to expose Planned Parenthood, according to the Houston Chronicle. Josh Schaffer, a Houston lawyer who represented Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in the criminal probe, told the New York Times that, after the April meeting, Daleiden sent an email to Planned Parenthood offering to buy fetal tissue for $1,600 per sample, but Planned Parenthood didn’t respond.
The grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing, according to a statement by Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us,” Anderson said. “All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”
The Center for Medical Progress says its employees did not commit any crimes. “The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws,” the statement says.
Lawyers for the indicted activists held a news conference Wednesday at which they said the indictment was made by a “runaway grand jury.”
In a subsequent recorded statement published and transcribed at Houston Public Media, Anderson stated that she would not re-present the case to another grand jury.
“We have a long-standing policy against grand jury shopping,” Anderson said. “That means when a grand jury comes back with a decision we don’t like, we don’t go and find another one to get the result we want. That violates the integrity of the whole system. The only time we re-present is if new evidence comes to light.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement saying the state’s own investigation of Planned Parenthood would continue.
Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation have both filed lawsuits claiming the center broke the law in its bid to target Planned Parenthood.
Updated Jan. 28 to include subsequent coverage.
