The US Supreme Court has been urged by 20 state Attorneys-General to allow the release of videos exposing abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked for an injunction blocking the release of footage obtained by a pro-life group to be dropped.
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released several undercover videos in 2015 including one which showed senior members of Planned Parenthood ‘haggling’ over the price of body parts from aborted babies.
Injunction
An injunction upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year has prevented more footage from being release by the CMP.
But Brnovich said that preventing the release of further footage from the group “hampers law enforcement’s ability to effectively receive information and investigate possible civil or criminal wrongdoing”.
He was backed up by colleagues in 19 states, including Alabama, Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia.
‘Public deception’
…four decades of public deception.
David Daleiden, a member of the CMP who was involved in the undercover investigation, was fined almost $200,000 and faced with felony charges for the release of undercover videos.
He is being represented in his case by Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF), which has asked for the Supreme Court to review the decision.
Executive Director of the LLDF Alexandra Snyder said: “The abortion industry went after David Daleiden for one reason – to protect the reputation it carefully cultivated in four decades of public deception.”
“Our hope is that the Supreme Court will agree that First Amendment freedoms must not be extinguished to remove from public scrutiny issues of fundamental social and political importance”, she added.
‘Heartbroken’
Planned Parenthood received over $554 million from government grants and bursaries last year.
In its latest report, the largest abortion provider in the US revealed that it has increased its profits by over 30 per cent. This is despite performing 46 per cent fewer prenatal services, and 11.6 per cent fewer breast exams than the previous year.
At the time of the report’s release, the American Center for Law and Justice said: “Abortions are up. Profits are up. Taxpayer-funded government bailouts are up. Yet cancer screenings, prenatal services, and other women’s health services continue to drop. It’s stunning.
“As taxpayers, we should be upset. As humans, we should be heartbroken.”