David Daleiden’s attorneys: A blow to pro-life undercover journalism is a blow to all undercover journalism

Live Action News has extensively covered proceedings from the civil and criminal cases brought against undercover journalist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) by the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and Planned Parenthood. CMP spent 30 months investigating the two organizations, and even attended two National Abortion Federation conferences in 2014 and 2015. Daleiden and his team at CMP are represented by the Chicago-based Thomas More Society (TMS) law firm. During the Law of Life Summit in Washington, D.C., the day before the 2020 March for Life, a panel from Thomas More Society offered updates on the cases against CMP and shared several startling revelations from those trials.

According to TMS, both NAF in 2015 and Planned Parenthood in 2016 filed federal lawsuits against David Daleiden, Sandra Merritt, and others with CMP, seeking “injunctions [against further undercover work and against release of further videos] and money.” Both cases ended up before the same federal judge in California. Shortly after that, Houston prosecutors filed misdemeanor and felony charges against Daleiden that were quickly thrown out in court. Planned Parenthood next filed a class action lawsuit in Seattle, attempting to prevent Daleiden’s receipt of legally requested documents concerning the University of Washington’s use of aborted baby body parts in their fetal experimentation and research program. Finally, California’s then-Attorney General, now Senator Kamala Harris, filed 15 “bogus political felonies.”

READ: David Daleiden reveals to court what led to undercover sting exposing baby body parts trafficking

Thomas More Society’s Peter Breen said the NAF case has been “bouncing back and forth in the appellate court” and is still pending. The Planned Parenthood federal case led to a $2.3 million verdict against Daleiden for “trespass” because Daleiden told Planned Parenthood staff that he was someone he was not. Breen commented that “the implications, if it [the verdict] were to stand up, would not only be devastating for pro-life work” but for undercover investigative journalists across the country, who routinely use fake IDs in their work. Breen commented that particularly “in the blue states, you have prosecutors who won’t lift a finger against dirty abortion clinics” and that undercover journalism is one of the only ways to shed light on unethical, illegal practices. Breen furthermore said that Planned Parenthood ultimately wants a permanent injunction against David Daleiden and the entire CMP team to prevent them from ever doing undercover work at Planned Parenthood again.

They established “through sworn testimony” in the civil case and companion criminal hearing that:

1. Babies were being born alive in Planned Parenthood facilities after abortions for the purpose of harvesting their organs.

2. StemExpress was cutting the beating hearts out of babies who survived abortions.

3. There was no true informed consent given by the women whose babies’ body parts were harvested.

Mainstream media not only failed to report the above points, but also failed to correct Planned Parenthood’s false claim that the CMP videos were “deceptively edited,” even after forensic analyses found just the opposite.

The public is also largely unaware that StemExpress, Planned Parenthood’s primary fetal tissue procurement agency in California, was shut down due to illegal activity. Shockingly, Thomas More Society lawyers were then prevented by gag order from presenting that information to the jury in the Planned Parenthood case.

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