A pro-life group which released videos exposing US abortion giant Planned Parenthood has been vindicated after charges against them were dropped.
The San Francisco Superior Court dropped 14 separate criminal charges against David Daleiden, Sandra Merritt and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), describing them as “legally insufficient”.
In 2015, the group released undercover videos including one which showed senior members of Planned Parenthood ‘haggling’ over the price of body parts from aborted babies. The case received international publicity at the time.
‘Discriminatory’
a politically motivated prosecution.
Judge Christopher Hite has now dismissed 14 of the charges which were brought by the Attorney General of California, Xavier Becerra.
Daleiden said afterwards: “This is a politically motivated prosecution.”
“And this is discriminatory against pro-life Americans and a rally against Californians who happen to have a different point of view”, he added.
Last year, another set of charges brought against the CMP in Houston were dropped.
‘Huge victory’
Mat Staver, founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, said: “This is a huge victory to have 14 criminal counts dismissed.”
He added that they would now turn their attention to having a remaining charge of conspiracy to invade privacy dismissed.
Arina Grossu of the Family Research Council said: “David Daleiden is a courageous hero for exposing the gory reality of the abortion industry and its sale of baby body parts.
“The implicated parties, including the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and Planned Parenthood, want to hide the truth from the general public”.
The news came as a pro-life group was blocked from buying adverts by Twitter for violations to its ‘hateful conduct policy’.
The social network site claimed Live Action’s content was “inflammatory” and “offensive”.
The group has been told it cannot buy advertising until it removes all of the material that is deemed to be offensive, not only from Twitter but also from its website.
‘Discriminating’
Speaking to Tucker Carlson on Fox News, President and Founder of Live Action Lila Rose said: “I think it’s clear that Twitter is discriminating against the pro-life voice.”
“Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion chain, is advertising on Twitter, but Live Action, which is the leading pro-life platform for the pro-life movement, is not allowed to”, she added.
Twitter said it “has clear, transparent rules that every advertiser is required to follow, and the political viewpoints of an organization do not impact how those rules are applied”.