On August 15, The Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden filed three motions in San Francisco federal court to dismiss Planned Parenthood-proxy the National Abortion Federation’s lawsuit and dissolve the preliminary injunction gag order that censors CMP’s remaining undercover video of Planned Parenthood leaders negotiating the sale of aborted baby parts.
CMP Statement:
“Three years ago, Planned Parenthood’s abortion doctors with the National Abortion Federation stormed into federal court demanding a gag order over the most damning undercover footage. Now they have largely retreated, dropping all of their federal claims and allegations of unlawful video recording, leaving only a simple contract dispute between fellow Californians. Since the gag order was issued, two Congressional investigations, a successful case against Planned Parenthood’s business partners in southern California, and the ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation prove that CMP’s videos are accurate and Judge Orrick’s reasons for placing the gag order were false. This case should be thrown out of federal court, and the censored undercover videos must be released.”
Key Points:
- NAF, largely made up of Planned Parenthood abortion leaders, stormed into federal court 3 years ago falsely accusing CMP and David Daleiden of trespass, fraud, illegal videotaping, and even RICO. This summer, NAF dropped the majority of their claims–now all they have left is a contract dispute.
- NAF is suing on behalf of its members, who include many of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in California who are suing on some of the same claims in PP’s related federal lawsuit. Because NAF has now dropped all of its federal claims, this lawsuit is now just a contract dispute among several Californians and there is no longer any jurisdiction for it in federal court. Judge Orrick cannot make any more rulings in this case and must throw it out.
- NAF and its members cannot allege any plausible violation in their contract disputes–their argument boils down to asserting they were harmed because CMP’s actors did not actually buy aborted baby parts from them instead of just talking about it.
- In February 2016, Judge Orrick granted NAF’s request for a Preliminary Injunction blocking the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood directors filmed at its annual meetings by CMP, based on NAF’s representation that CMP’s undercover work had not found any wrongdoing, and allegations that the videos placed NAF members under threat. In the past two years, Judge Orrick’s findings supporting his injunction have been proven false.
- Since the injunction was issued, two Congressional investigations prompted by CMP’s videos confirmed serious wrongdoing and “systematic violations” in Planned Parenthood and NAF’s fetal body parts supply, yielding over a dozen criminal and regulatory referrals, now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. A California District Attorney specifically credited CMP’s undercover work with prompting his successful prosecution of Planned Parenthood business partners the DaVinci companies for selling fetal tissue for profit, which the companies admitted in a $7.8 million settlement.
- Planned Parenthood has admitted since the injunction was issued that CMP’s videos are not responsible for any specific violent threat to abortion providers, and NAF’s own statistics published since the injunction shows no increase in actual threats to NAF members attributable to the videos. CMP has never released a video calling for harm to anyone and has instead always directed the public to seek recourse through elected representatives and First Amendment speech.
- Since the injunction, the California Attorney General has brought a legally unsupported prosecution against David Daleiden based on the California video recording law, at the behest of Planned Parenthood and many NAF members. The undercover videos subject to Judge Orrick’s injunction are now key evidence in the criminal case, and any restriction on them from the federal court would unconstitutionally interfere with the California justice system and David Daleiden’s 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendment rights to defend himself from the AG’s and Planned Parenthood’s false charges.
