Texas grand jury absolves Planned Parenthood, indicts undercover filmmakers

According to Texas Right to Life, “The case centered around video footage captured by the Center for Medical Progress in which executives of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast candidly admitted (1) that they routinely deliver “intact fetal cadavers” and (2) that selling these baby specimens was ‘all just a matter of line items'”.

A grand jury in Texas chose not to indict Planned Parenthood over controversial undercover videos that pro-life advocates alleged showed the illegal sale of fetal tissue.

In a response to the indictments, the Center for Medical Progress said that the group “follows all applicable laws”, while using undercover methods that have become common in investigative reporting.

The Texas video was the fifth released by the Center for Medical Progress.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gov. Patrick issued a statement saying that a state Senate probe he had ordered would continue “because the horrific nature of these videos demand scrutiny and investigation”, reported Chron.com, and “Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who also ordered their own investigations, released statements saying they would continue”.

One of the almost 300 prosecutors in Harris County, Tex., (the office involved in the grand jury investigation) is Lauren Reeder, who at least was and maybe still is on the board of the local Planned Parenthood affiliate.

“At that point in time, it was undisputed that Planned Parenthood had engaged in no criminal conduct at all, and none of its employees had either”, Shaffer said.

David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Under Texas law, the felony charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt allegedly used California driver’s licenses they knew were false “with the intent to defraud and harm another”, the documents indicate. Posing as representatives of a biotechnology firm, they used fake identification to set up meetings with officials of the Planned Parenthood clinic serving the Houston area. The Houston Planned Parenthood clinic said it never agreed to the offer and ceased contact with BioMax because it was “disturbed” by the overtures.

Two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos about Planned Parenthood are accused of using fake driver’s licenses to infiltrate the group, indictments made public Tuesday show.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson began that investigation last August, according to a spokesman, collaborating with law enforcement on a probe with subpoena power that stretched well into the fall.

Despite the assertions of the fraudulently obtained and deeply misleading videos, Planned Parenthood does not profit from fetal tissue donations. “Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts is antithetical to our belief in human dignity”, Brownback told the Kansas Legislature.

The Harris County grand jury also indicted Daleiden with a second charge for “prohibition of the purchase and sale of human organs”, presumably for offering to purchase fetal tissue from the organization. PP’s brutality quickly faded from the headlines, the Democrats and Barack Obama managed to scuttle a congressional effort to deny the organization its $500 million yearly taxpayer subsidy, and now it’s escaping criminal charges as well. Likewise, “the hard evidence against Planned Parenthood and contained in the investigative video by CMP is overwhelming and undeniable”, yet no indictment of Planned Parenthood officials was handed down. Planned Parenthood took a hit in 2011 when Brownback cut its federal Title X family planning funding. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was a corporate sponsor of the Tribune in 2012.