It's one of those stories that looks like good being called evil and evil being called good. Nevertheless. Monday's indictment of pro-life Journalist David Daleiden and his assistant, Sandra Merritt, who produced the undercover video showing Planned Parenthood selling baby body parts, is being met with the ire of tens of thousands who have signed a petition calling for the charges against him to be dropped.
The indictment was levied by a Texas grand jury and notes a charge of tampering with a government record. Planned Parenthood was cleared of charges of selling baby parts for profit, even though videos that Daleiden and Merritt presented showed high-level Planned Parenthood employees admitting that they did engage in such activities.
In an article that Daleiden wrote for USA Today, Daleiden writes about a, "newfound awareness of this most-common surgical procedure's brutality to the baby fetus and the commodification of human life."
He said the undercover videos revealed executives employed by Planned Parenthood who were "top level," and as they "callously" negotiated with medical directors in regard to, "both the harvesting techniques and the exchange of money for aborted body parts."
He believes the videos have had an impact that has, "forever banished from the public discourse Planned Parenthood's out-of-sight, out-of-mind mantra on its industrial-scale abortion business."
Daleiden notes that six months later, Planned Parenthood still has not denied "the shocking and indicting words on the videos [that] were spoken by its own senior level leadership. Not a single Planned Parenthood executive caught on camera has come forward to deny that it is her voice, image or statements being depicted."
In a few specific references from the video, he points out, "Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, advises how doctors know 'I'm not gonna crush that part' when it is harvested for sale at Planned Parenthood affiliates where 'if they can do a little better than break even' are 'happy to do that.' Then-President of Planned Parenthood's medical director council, Dr. Mary Gatter, suggests 'a less crunchy technique to get more whole specimens' and laughing, 'I want a Lamborghini.' It is telling that in Planned Parenthood's new anti-First Amendment lawsuit, it is suing me for everything but defamation."
Daleiden believes that the videos effectively show, "Planned Parenthood's senior leadership partaking in a widespread and organized violation of state and federal laws forbidding partial-birth abortions and profiteering from the sale of fetal organs and tissues, which is why multiple state and federal investigations, including a select committee in Congress, continue to investigate Planned Parenthood's abortion practice and financial interests in harvesting body parts. Contrary to the liberal shibboleth that the videos were 'edited' (by which they mean to insinuate, 'doctored'), the Center for Medical Progress has been far more transparent than any major news network in making the unedited conversations available to the public, and forensic analysis verifies their utility as evidence."
He told LifeNews in a statement that the videos that he and Merritt made clearly showed Planned Parenthood had potentially broken several state and federal laws in their activities of selling aborted baby parts.
"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 the press, and follows all applicable laws," Daleiden said.
An e-mail from Live Action President Lila Rose to LifeNews states, "David Daleiden and his team have done a tremendous public service by exposing the horrific crimes against humanity that Planned Parenthood hides behind closed doors. CMP's investigation forced Planned Parenthood, a tax-funded billion dollar corporation, to admit it was harvesting and selling aborted baby parts."
Kristin Hawkins of Students for Life also e-mailed a statement to LifeNews: "It's horrifying that the Houston grand jury failed to indict the organization who was willing to sell baby body parts yet somehow manages to indict the journalist who caught them in the act. The fact that an employee of the District Attorney is on the board of Planned Parenthood confirms an incestuous relationship between corrupt officials in the Harris County DA's office and the nation's largest abortion provider, whose livelihood is on the line should they be criminally charged with selling the body parts of aborted babies. I'm proud to stand with David, the Center for Medical Progress, and journalists everywhere on this one."
A petition to drop all charges against David Daleiden can be signed here.
