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The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is pulling out all stops to go after David Robert Daleiden, the pro-life activist who founded the Irvine, California-based The Center for Medical Progress.

Their beef? It was his organization that recorded undercover footage of top Planned Parenthood officials and other discussing the dissection and sale of baby parts for profit.

The abortion giant has suffered some bumps in the road in prosecuting Daleiden and his associate, Sandra Merritt, directly, so now it’s pushing legislation to make what the Center for Medical Progress undercover journalists did illegal.

The pro-life legal group Life legal Defense Foundation issued this statement t Life News.

Planned Parenthood is sponsoring legislation in California to criminalize the publication of evidence of its business practices, which include harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted babies.

Assembly Bill 1671 would make it a crime to publish confidential conversations with certain health care providers—most notably, anyone affiliated with an abortion clinic.
This means anyone who posts a photo or video of an interaction with an abortion clinic employee or volunteer—including clinic escorts—could be prosecuted under the bill. AB 1671 provides for penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and one year in state prison.

Legislative analysts expressed concern that the bill would violate the First Amendment, which “gives the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in democracy.” The U.S. Supreme Court has held that “prior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.”

The original, broader version of the bill, which did not single out health care providers for protection, drew opposition from the California Newspaper Publishers Association and animal rights activists. After the bill was amended to more specifically target anti-abortion investigative activities, these groups withdrew their opposition. Neither the ACLU nor any other civil liberties or journalism organization has voiced opposition.

AB 1671 is a direct attack on the efforts of David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress to expose Planned Parenthood’s illegal practice of selling fetal body parts for profit. Since the release of Daleiden’s videos, eleven states have voted to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider.

AB 1671 passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday and appears to be headed to the Assembly floor for a vote.

California legislators are willing to throw free speech under the bus to protect Planned Parenthood’s financial interests. Please urge your legislators to oppose this unconstitutional bill.

One of those “bumps in the road” referred to above was that the Harris County, Texas, district attorney admitted to breaking the law in trying to secure at indictment against Daleiden and Merritt with bogus charges under pressure from Planned Parenthood attorneys.

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Michael Dorstewitz

Mike has been with BizPac Review almost from the beginning. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeBPR.

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