Planned Parenthood Celebrates Unjust Conviction of David Daleiden, “We’re Thrilled”

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 18, 2019   |   2:52PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood celebrated the unjust conviction of journalist David Daleiden on Friday after he exposed its alleged illegal sales of aborted baby body parts.

“We’re thrilled with today’s verdict,” the abortion chain wrote on Twitter after the jury awarded it approximately $2 million in alleged damages caused by the undercover expose.

Attorneys for Daleiden, Sandra Merritt and board members of Center for Medical Progress, which oversaw the undercover investigation, are expected to appeal.

Planned Parenthood filed the civil lawsuit accusing them of more than a dozen crimes, including trespassing, breach of confidentiality, wiretapping and conspiracy. The trial is separate from a criminal case against Daleiden and Merritt launched by former California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

“David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress intentionally waged a multi-year illegal effort to manufacture a malicious campaign against Planned Parenthood,” Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement.

“The jury recognized today that those behind the campaign broke the law in order to advance their goals of banning safe, legal abortion in this country, and to prevent Planned Parenthood from serving the patients who depend on us,” Johnson continued, The Hill reports.

On Twitter, the abortion group also accused Daleiden of creating a “false smear campaign against Planned Parenthood.”

But the abortion chain did not sue Daleiden for defamation. Planned Parenthood officials admitted on the stand that what he presented in the undercover videos was accurate, and an independent forensics investigation verified that the videos were authentic.

Still, Planned Parenthood accused Daleiden and his team of attempting to ruin their abortion business through his undercover investigation.

Rhonda Trotter, an attorney for the abortion group, celebrated the jury’s decision in a statement to Courthouse News.

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“The jury has spoken loud and clear. Those who violate the law in an effort to limit access to reproductive rights and health care will be held accountable,” Trotter said. “It has been our firm’s great honor to represent Planned Parenthood in this important matter, and to help protect the rights, safety and security of Planned Parenthood and its dedicated doctors and staff in the face of an egregious and unlawful attack.”

Life Legal Defense Foundation, which represented the Center for Medical Progress, promised that they will appeal the unjust ruling.

“We are appalled by today’s verdict,” the legal group said in a statement. “It is as though the jury completely disregarded every piece of evidence we produced. Not only does Planned Parenthood engage in illegal and morally repugnant practices, but its agents never bothered to tell the defendants that the conversations about things like ‘crushing above and crushing below’ to get more desirable and salable body parts were confidential.”

The undercover investigation exposed numerous atrocities inside Planned Parenthood abortion facilities across the U.S. Its findings prompted investigations by the U.S. House and Senate, as well as a number of states.

Not only did the Center for Medical Progress investigation raise concerns about potentially illegal sales of human body parts, but it also uncovered evidence of abortionists allegedly putting women’s lives at risk by altering abortion procedures to better harvest aborted baby parts. The investigators also found evidence of possible patient privacy violations.

Daleiden and his fellow investigators contend that they did not do anything wrong; they are undercover journalists who worked to expose the unethical and potentially illegal harvesting and sales of aborted baby body parts by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Peter Breen, Daleiden’s lawyer, said their goal was to inform the public of potential wrong-doing within the abortion industry.

Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar “nonprofit” that does more abortions than any other group in America and has massive political power, dumping tens of millions of dollars into elections each year.

The investigative team’s lawyers repeatedly have criticized how Judge William Orrick handled the case, including refusing to allow key experts to testify and to allow the jury to watch some of the undercover footage obtained by Daleiden and Merritt.

Orrick has close ties to the Planned Parenthood abortion chain, but he refused to recuse himself from the case. Prior to becoming a judge, Orrick served on the board of a San Francisco-area family resource center that shares space and helps run a Planned Parenthood facility that refers for abortions.