Texas Grand Jury Indicts Two in Probe of Anti-Abortion Videos

Representative Marsha Blackburn, who was appointed to chair the select committee previous year, agreed with Black that the indictment against Daleiden will not affect the committee’s work. Thus far, none of the investigations has turned up wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. He and the other activist, Sandra Merritt, were both indicted for tampering with a governmental record.

Now a Texas county grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood has instead indicted the people behind the camera for using fake driver’s licenses and posing as a legitimate medical company. But Texas state law includes a provision that elevates this transgression-knowingly using a fake government document-to a second-degree felony if “the intent is to defraud or harm another”.

A grand jury has found criminal behavior in that third-rate con known as the Planned Parenthood video sting operation, and it is worth noting the place where justice was finally served.

At first the plan seemed to be working.

The anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress has released several covertly shot videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the handling of fetal tissue from abortions.

Daleiden’s attorney has said the anti-abortion activists will turn themselves in to the Harris County Jail and will plead not guilty. And Black has said, “I am passionately pro-life and have long opposed the federal funding of Planned Parenthood, but every American deserves to know that our laws are followed and that taxpayer dollars are spent with integrity”.

“If we’re being frank”, he added, “that is not a grand jury that is looking to bring the hammer down because you’ve done some grave, grave thing”.

But unfortunately, that reversal of fortunes can’t undo the damage Daleiden and Merritt have already caused.

“As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us”, Anderson said.

“The TX grand jury decision to clear [Planned Parenthood] & indict anti-choice activists represents a victory for truth over baseless, partisan attacks”, tweeted Florida Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel. The issue is one of respect for life by a Medicaid provider and the decision in Arkansas to not send taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood is not influenced by a decision in Texas.

“These individuals broke laws as part of their fraudulent campaign”, said Melaney Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston. The indictment reads: “the Defendant, heretofore on or about JUNE 30, 2015, did then and there unlawfully, intentionally and knowingly offer to buy human organs, namely fetal tissue, for valuable consideration”. Better yet, in a surprise twist, it indicted employees of the Center for Medical Progress, the organization that recorded the videos.

Ironically the grand jury was formed after Texas’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, a Tea Party conservative, called for the Harris County attorney general’s office to open an investigation to possibly seek charges against Planned Parenthood. And Daleiden was schooled in the science and terminology of fetal tissue research.

Daleiden, who describes himself as a “citizen journalist”, engaged in anti-abortion activism while attending Davis High School, working with like-minded college students and older activists.

“He basically pulled out an engagement ring after the first date”, Schaffer said.

Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday the indictments would not stop the political machinery moving against Planned Parenthood.

Neither the indictment nor the Planned Parenthood lawsuit seem to have diminished Daleiden’s stature among anti-abortion activists.

Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing in connection with its fetal tissue practices, saying a few clinics used to accept legally allowed reimbursement for the costs of providing tissue donated by some of its clients.