It already was known that the California official who filed felony charges against two pro-lifers who went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s baby body-parts trade received thousands of dollars over the years from Planned Parenthood.
But the political influence on the case because crystal clear this week when it took three judges a total of 12 hours to allow one of the defendants who had scheduled to turn herself in to be freed on bond.
And then the bond was set at a stunning $75,000.
Liberty Counsel lawyers are defending Sandra Merritt in the case. Other lawyers are defending David Daleiden, who both were with the Center for Medical Progress when, during 2015, they recorded multiple abortion industry leaders discussing their trade in body parts, including one Planned Parenthood executive who was arguing for higher profits and said “I want a Lamborghini.”
Liberty Counsel was with Merritt when she turned herself in on the charge that she recorded people’s comments without their consent.
The legal team said it took three judges and 12 hours for Merritt to be released on bail, set at $75,000, which judges refused to lower.
Explained Liberty Counsel in a statement: “The State of California made it clear that it will spare no expense to convict her and put her in jail for 11 years. However, Liberty Counsel is defending Merritt and will seek dismissal of these outrageous and baseless charges. Similar criminal charges arising from the same recordings were brought against Merritt in Houston, Texas in 2016 but were eventually dismissed. The allegations say that Merritt and David Daleiden filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the county of El Dorado. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th charge was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.”
But the organization said that rather than “investigating and prosecuting Planned Parenthood, which donated thousands of dollars to his political campaigns, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed charges against Merritt, claiming that her undercover video recordings violated California law.”
“To date, no other citizen journalist or journalism organization has ever been charged with a crime for undercover recording.”
Liberty Counsel lawyer Horatio Mihet said it “makes no sense that a 34-year-old illegal immigrant, the very definition of a flight risk, is charged with rape and gets his bail set at $2,500.”
“But the judge refused to lower the $75,000 bail for Sandra ‘Susan’ Merritt, a 64-year-old grandmother who has lived in the same house for 41 years and doesn’t even have a passport. All because she gave Planned Parenthood a huge black eye. There is law, and then there’s abortion law,” he said.
“We are dealing with corrupt politicians in the state of California who have their hands in the pockets of Planned Parenthood,” said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel. “Sandra Merritt did not violate any law and we will seek dismissal of these baseless charges.”
Staver, as WND reported, previously said the attorney general is “in the back pocket of Planned Parenthood.”
“He got a campaign contribution from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards speaks very highly of him and has mentioned him in glowing terms in a press release.”
His organization reported Becerra has received “thousands” of dollars from Planned Parenthood.
When pro-abortion California Gov. Jerry Brown named Becerra as attorney general, Planned Parenthood boss Cecile Richards praised the appointment.
“Rep. Becerra is a long-time champion for women’s reproductive rights and health,” she said. “As a former California deputy attorney general, he understands the importance of a woman’s right to access the full range of health care, including safe, legal abortion. At a time when reproductive health is gravely under attack in states across the country, we need leaders like Rep. Becerra to be responsible stewards of the law and protect the rights of millions of Americans, including the 850,000 California women, men and families that Planned Parenthood serves every year.”
Liberty Counsel said the Center for Responsive Politics shows Becerra received “$1,000 in 2014, $2,000 in 2012, $500 in 2004, $1,000 in 2002 and $1,035 in 1998 in congressional campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood.”
Staver charged at the time: “There is obvious political motivation behind the recent baseless criminal charges against Sandra Merritt and David Daleiden. Our client did not break any laws. With all the investigative media and reality TV shows that use investigative journalism in California, there has been no effort by the state to prosecute and for good reason, because the First Amendment has something to say about this. The attorney general has engaged in selective prosecution to target pro-life speech. When law enforcement selectively targets people, everyone should be concerned. This effort will fail.”
When California said it was lodging 15 felony counts against the two pro-life activists behind the landmark 2015 series alleging Planned Parenthood sold the body parts of aborted babies for profit, WND reported the pro-lifers responded by releasing yet another video. In the latest, a former employee of Planned Parenthood explains how she tries to make sure babies are dismembered before removal because of the visual impact of the dead victim.
“It’s not a matter of how I felt about [the unborn infant] coming out intact, but I’ve got to worry about my staff, and you know, people’s feelings about it, coming out looking like a baby,” says DeShawn Taylor, a former medical operator for Planned Parenthood Arizona who now runs her own abortion business.
Naming baby ‘so creepy’
In the new video, Taylor says that because “Arizona is so conservative,” she resists sending an intact baby’s body for disposal or cremation.
Those who handle death certifications, she said, have told her to call the victim “Baby so-and-so.”
“That’s so creepy,” she said.
In the video, Taylor believed she was speaking to procurement specialists who wanted to obtain undamaged and unadulterated baby tissue. She said the request was problematic because if there’s any sign of life, Arizona law requires her to transport the baby to a hospital.
That makes it “tricky,” she said.
“You need to pay attention to who’s in the room.”
The new video:
[jwplayer e5MQmD1A-pszPfxYQ]
‘Laying bare the inhumanity’
The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List expressed shock at the “callousness” revealed in the video.
“The latest video from the Center for Medical Progress once again lays bare the inhumanity of abortion and Planned Parenthood’s disregard for the law,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
“The abortionist may laugh as she describes the force needed to dismember a 5-month-old unborn child struggling to survive, but even the staff are not immune to the terrible sight of aborted children and babies possibly born alive and left to die. At Planned Parenthood, these precious children are valued for the profit their organs can bring, but not their lives.”
Planned Parenthood is now is a desperate fight in Congress to keep the $500 million annually it has been getting from taxpayers. President Trump and members of Congress have said that money would be better spent on community health centers that provide a full range of health services.
A U.S. House panel, headed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., issued a report on CMP’s 11 videos “documenting the practices of local abortion clinics and groups affiliated with the fetal tissue procurement industry.”
“Daleiden and his colleagues filmed hundreds of hours of meetings and conversations. … Multiple clips show abortion providers and executives admitting that their fetal tissue procurement agreements are profitable for clinics and help keep their bottom line healthy,” the House panel said.
“Multiple clips show abortion providers and executives admitting that they sometimes changed the abortion procedure in order to obtain a more intact specimen, and some use the illegal partial birth abortion procedure,” it said.
The congressional investigators found: “Planned Parenthood Federation of America also revealed that they intentionally had not set a policy about ‘remuneration’ for fetal tissue because ‘the headlines would be a disaster.’ While the organization’s executive told affiliates to ‘think, ‘New York Times headline” if this went badly, at the end of the day, they thought ‘[selling fetal tissue] is a good idea.'”
One of the original videos showed an official admitting Planned Parenthood sells fully intact aborted babies.
[jwplayer RiJygVb1]
Another has Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on crushing babies.
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” she said.
[jwplayer 7pzwagZg]
In the second video, Planned Parenthood’s Mary Gatter discussed how her compensation for organs could rise when she said, “I want a Lamborghini.”
[jwplayer vbPjx8h2]
The fifth video released shows Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood’s Houston clinic discussing “intact fetal cadavers”:
[jwplayer 6YZC1nO2]
The seventh video has the testimony of a Planned Parenthood worker who tapped an aborted infant’s heart and saw it start beating.
[jwplayer 5wFzwlF1]
