No, Planned Parenthood wasn’t found innocent in the baby parts scandal

Last week, Planned Parenthood came under fire for claiming that the Center for Medical Progress videos were fake. Despite analyses by multiple independent firms that found no trace of manipulation or tampering, Planned Parenthood is still trying to trick the public into believing that the entire scandal was invented by pro-life activists.

In addition, they’re trying to claim that they have been found innocent of any wrongdoing in 12 separate investigations:

Officials in 12 states have concluded investigations into claims that Planned Parenthood profited from fetal tissue donation and each one has cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing. Another eight states have declined to investigate based on a lack of evidence. This underscores what this is really all about–politics. And then — when politically motivated investigations turned up nothing — politicians in states like Ohio, Florida and Missouri pressed on anyway with their defunding attempts.

And just like the claim that the videos were “fake,” this bold-faced lie doesn’t hold up, either.

First, Planned Parenthood has been accused of breaking the law in a handful of states, and has been fined for abuses. An investigation in Florida revealed that Planned Parenthood was allegedly committing illegal second-trimester abortions.

South Carolina and Ohio both found Planned Parenthood guilty of illegally dumping aborted babies in landfills, and the governor of Kentucky even sued Planned Parenthood for performing illegal abortions. Pennsylvania, too, found egregious abuses, and discovered that Planned Parenthood stored the bodies of aborted babies in janitors’ closets.

In addition to these findings, several states, such as California and Colorado, outright refused to investigate Planned Parenthood. And then there’s Texas, a state that Planned Parenthood has been eager to use as an example.

A Harris County grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, two Center for Medical Progress investigators, in a move that almost immediately came under fire after Harris County prosecutor Lauren Reeder was found to be a director of one of the Planned Parenthood facilities under investigation.

Interestingly enough, Daleiden and Merritt were indicted for allegedly attempting to buy fetal body parts; however, in order to buy the parts, Planned Parenthood would need to be selling them. This is something that Planned Parenthood has been suspiciously quiet about.

However, just because Daleiden and Merritt were indicted does not mean that Planned Parenthood is innocent. After the indictments, Governor Greg Abbott released a statement announcing that the investigation into Planned Parenthood is still ongoing. To this day, it has not concluded and Planned Parenthood is still being investigated.

The fact of the matter is, Planned Parenthood was found to have allegedly broken the the law by selling the body parts of aborted babies, sometimes even killing babies that survived abortions in order to harvest their body parts. This shouldn’t be surprising by now; Planned Parenthood has long believed they are above the law, but it’s time for officials to hold them accountable.