A jury in federal court in California has awarded $870,000 in punitive damages to Planned Parenthood in its lawsuit against undercover journalists who exposed the abortion industry’s profiting from the sale of baby body parts.
The judge in the case, William Orrick, was linked to Planned Parenthood and repeatedly made rulings on behalf of the organization for which he once arranged a rental agreement at a community center he supervised. During the case, his wife publicly attacked the defendants.
Students for Life of America President Kirstan Hawkins said: “This is a case of shooting the proverbial messenger who had the courage to document the business model of the nation’s number one abortion vendor. It was clear during the hearing that Planned Parenthood did harvest and sell infant body parts. What a miscarriage of justice to punish those who documented the disgusting practices. This is the end of undercover journalism, which ironic timing given all the attention to whistle blowers these days.”
LifeSiteNews reported the jury in San Francisco concluded David Daleiden and others from the Center for Medical Progress were found liable in the civil rights case of multiple offenses against abortionists.
The verdict Friday from nine men and one woman came after deliberations of less than two days.
The report said Orrick “has ties to Planned Parenthood, but refused to disqualify himself when defense requested him to do so.”
CMP released videos in 2015 exposing the U.S. abortion industry’s trade in aborted baby body parts after a 30-month undercover operation.
The report explained: “The groundbreaking videos showed top-level Planned Parenthood executives haggling over prices of aborted baby body parts, and discussing how to change abortion procedures to obtain more intact organs, and sparked public outrage, congressional and senate hearings, and an ongoing Department of Justice criminal investigation into Planned Parenthood.”
Planned Parenthood then sued Daleiden, Sandra Merritt, Adrian Lopez and CMP, as well as founding board members Albin Rhomberg and Troy Newman of Operation Rescue.
Orrick had refused to allow defense lawyers to base their arguments on the First Amendment.
“The judge ‘had already found that the defendants trespassed when they attended, undercover, Planned Parenthood conferences in Miami and Orlando and met with Planned Parenthood executives at Planned Parenthood facilities in Colorado and Texas,’ according to an Archdiocese of San Francisco report,” LifeSite News reported.
Newman noted a Planned Parenthood executive was shown in a video explaining higher profits could be obtained by crushing an unborn baby above and below the organs sought by researchers. Another abortionist, discussing the profits from the trade, said, “I want a Lamborghini.”
Another attorney representing Merritt, Harry Mihet of Liberty Counsel, asked the jury to consider why Merritt, a grandmother, could not simply ignore allegations about the abortion industry.
“The answer you heard from her is simple, and yet profound: her conscience would not let her forget the things that she learned about the trafficking of human organs,” he said.
“Ms. Merritt could not forget the evil laughter of Dr. Miles Jones in the 20/20 video, who likened the human fetus to a ‘golden goose’ and bragged about the obscene amounts of money he made in selling human fetuses piece by piece.
“Ms. Merritt could not forget the inconsolable weeping of Cindy Smith, the mother of twins in that 20/20 video, who was never asked to consent to the selling for profit of her unborn twins’ body parts,” Mihet said.
“Nor could Ms. Merritt ignore the head of fetal tissue purchaser and Planned Parenthood partner ABR, who admitted in that 20/20 video that ABR gave its abortion provider partners manual syringes to maximize the dollar value of the human organs they obtained from patients, knowing full well that using manual syringes prolonged the abortion procedure by as much as 15 minutes.
“Nor could Ms. Merritt forget learning about the Stanford study involving human hearts procured by StemExpress – another Planned Parenthood partner – and hooked up to Langendorff Perfusions,” said Mihet.
“Nor could she forget the absolute horror when she learned from Mr. Daleiden and Dr. Deisher that Langendorff Perfusions ONLY WORK ON HEARTS THAT ARE STILL BEATING, meaning that they must have been taken out of born alive human beings.”
Mihet told jurors “these truths” are difficult to hear, but “they should be difficult to hear, because we do not want to become a society where these kinds of things can be uncovered, heard and then swept under the rug and ignored.”
The CMP investigation was sparked a video in a 2000 report by the ABC News show “20/20.”
See the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mltRMb5GDKE&feature=youtu.be
In the segment, Chris Wallace says a “hidden camera investigation has found a thriving industry, in which aborted fetuses women donate to help medical research are being marketed for hundreds – even thousands of dollars.”
The so-called consent obtained from the women, ABC said, is filled with “legal mumbo jumbo,” meaning the women sign without knowing their babies will be sold for research.
The videos caused a furor that caught the attention of lawmakers. California regulators shut down businesses that had been buying body parts, and two congressional committees referred companies and individuals for possible prosecution. The committees cited a federal law that bans profiting from the sale of body parts.
Orrick heard the case under a cloud. He was on the board of a community organization and negotiated a no-fee lease for Planned Parenthood in the community center he helped run.
The judge previously refused the request of defendants to recuse himself from the case because of his conflict of interest. At trial, he repeatedly has prevented evidence helpful to the defendants from being admitted.
Here are two of the videos released by CMP:
One of the videos that has been suppressed by Orrick includes more information about the body-parts industry.
It was available only briefly online.
However, transcripts of comments by abortion executives have been preserved.
Lisa Harris, medical director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan: “Our stories don’t really have a place in a lot of pro-choice discourse and rhetoric, right? The heads that get stuck that we can’t get out. The hemorrhages that we manage.”
Susan Robinson of Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte in San Jose, California: “The fetus is a tough little object and taking it apart, I mean taking it apart, on day one is very difficult.’
Talcott Camp, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Health Freedom Project: “I’m like oh my god! I get it! When the skull is broken, that’s really sharp. I get it, I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium.”
Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America: “You know, sometimes she’ll tell me she wants brain, and we’ll, you know, leave the calvarium in ’til last, and then try to basically take it, or actually, you know, catch everything, and even keep it separate from the rest of the tissue so it doesn’t get lost.”
Uta Landy, founder of the Consortium of Abortion providers for Planned Parenthood: “An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross.”
Her comment was followed by raucous laughter from the abortionists at the meeting of the National Abortion Federation.
In December 2015, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives referred the Planned Parenthood Federation of American and six regional affiliates to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation.
Operation Rescue noted little attention was given to the issue under President Obama, but after Donald Trump moved into office, the investigations “appeared to show signs of life.”
See a CMP video about Planned Parenthood skirting federal law:
The “Lamborghini” executive:
Paying attention to who’s in the room when infants are born alive:
Altering abortion procedures:
Selling body parts a “valid exchange”:
