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CMP Statement on the Supreme Court’s Overturn of Roe v. Wade

Founder and President of The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, released this statement today about the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson overruling the faulty 1900s-era Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey abortion decisions:

CMP’s undercover videos exposing the barbaric sale of aborted fetuses and their body parts at Planned Parenthood demonstrated the dehumanizing cruelty of industrial-scale abortion to the whole country. Now, the national tragedy of industrial-scale, state-sponsored violation of the human right to life of infants in the womb is ending because the need for common sense limits on abortion forced the Supreme Court to look at the equal human dignity of our brothers and sisters before birth. A new bigger, better, brighter chapter begins today as the responsibility to empower women and protect infant lives returns to the people. Together, we will make our communities safe for the two lives, mama and infant, who need help in every unplanned or challenging pregnancy, and we celebrate the dawning era where there is no longer a price tag put on human life.

—David Daleiden, Founder and President, The Center for Medical Progress

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Watch the undercover videos and learn more about CMP’s investigative reporting here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org

David Daleiden is available for further comment or interview at media@centerformedicalprogress.org

Statement on Five Aborted Infants Discovered in Washington, D.C.

The bodies of the five late-term aborted infants recovered from Dr. Cesare Santangelo’s Washington Surgi-Center in Washington, D.C.—Christopher X, Harriet, Holly, Ángel, and Phoenix—are prima facie physical evidence that these babies died the victims of criminal partial-birth abortions and infanticide. There is no evidence these infants were aborted legally. Instead, the available evidence indicates they were delivered alive and killed in the rush to supply them to a medical waste energy plant to burn for electricity. We demand an independent autopsy to confirm the cause of death of these infants, and we call on public authorities to hold criminal providers who commit partial-birth abortions accountable under the law.

#JusticeForTheFive #DCPDAutopsyNOW

Attributable to investigative reporter David Daleiden, founder and president of The Center for Medical Progress

NEW VIDEO: The Supreme Court Must Uphold State Abortion Limits

MEDIA ADVISORY: New Video From The Center for Medical Progress Explains Why Supreme Court Must Uphold State Abortion Limits

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

This week, The Center for Medical Progress released a new video about the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson case on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion limit, explaining why the Court must uphold state abortion limits. The video is based on the amicus curiae brief that CMP and its founder David Daleiden wrote and filed in the case, and highlights the disturbing facts from CMP’s undercover videos and investigative reporting on the trafficking of aborted infants, to argue:

“CMP’s undercover videos make this case simple—if a baby is old enough to be trafficked for body parts, he or she should be old enough to be protected from abortion by a state law.”

The new video also examines the tragic and lethal consequences that unlimited, legalized abortion has brought to American communities, such as the demand for late-term fetal organs, racist quotas for harvesting aborted fetuses for experiments, and the enabling of infanticide by pro-abortion government policies as in the Kermit Gosnell case.

CMP’s founder and president David Daleiden notes, “Top abortion industry leaders caught on undercover video admit in their own words that the 15-week babies in the womb whose human vulnerability is now before the Supreme Court are the most at risk for organ trafficking for experiments. There is only one answer the Supreme Court can give in the Dobbs case, which is to recognize the obvious, overriding constitutional interests the people of this country have in protecting infants in the womb from lethal abortion. The discriminatory, unequal, and violent treatment the Court once authorized toward so-called ‘pre-viability’ human infants has led to tragic and lethal consequences for our communities, and it is totally inconsistent with who we are supposed to be as a country. Now at last is the time for a new and more humane way forward.”

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Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n96f2swYCCk

To learn more about CMP, visit: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org

CMP Statement on End of Abortion in Texas

Founder and President of The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, released this statement today about the U.S. Supreme Court permitting Texas’ law prohibiting abortions after the baby’s heartbeat can be detected to be enforced:

As the Supreme Court allows Texas’ new fetal heartbeat law to take effect, the tragedy of industrial-scale, state-sponsored violation of the human right to life of infants in the womb is finally ending in the same State where it started nearly 50 years ago. Restraining Planned Parenthood and their industry partners from abortions when the baby’s heart is beating is our common sense moral imperative, and it matters for every single one of us because we were all once tiny infants in the womb known only by our heartbeats. Unaccountable abortion practice in Texas led to the terrible human atrocities of abortion quotas, partial-birth abortions, and selling baby body parts, exposed by The Center for Medical Progress’ undercover reporting. Now at last is the time for a new and more humane way forward, where the progress of our communities is not purchased with the blood of our children.

—David Daleiden, founder and president, The Center for Medical Progress

BREAKING: University of Pittsburgh ADMITS Hearts Beating While Harvesting Aborted Infants’ Kidneys

MEDIA ADVISORY: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ADMITS HEARTS BEATING WHILE HARVESTING ABORTED INFANTS’ KIDNEYS

In a statement to news media today, the University of Pittsburgh admitted that “ischemia time” in its NIH grant application for the GUDMAP aborted fetal kidney harvesting program “refers to the time after the tissue collection procedure”. From this afternoon’s Fox News article, “Millions in federal money flowed to fetal tissue bank that collected fetal ‘heart, gonads, legs, brain’: report”:

Ischemia time, he said “refers to the time after the tissue collection procedure”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pittsburgh-fetal-tissue-project

Ischemia starts when the organ (the kidneys primarily in Pitt’s GUDMAP project) is cut off from blood circulation. The NIH defines ischemia as “lack of blood supply to a part of the body.” The University states the fetal organs do not undergo ischemia—lose their blood supply—until “after the tissue collection procedure”. This means the organs are still receiving blood supply from the fetal heartbeat during the “tissue collection”.

David Daleiden, founder and president of The Center for Medical Progress, notes: “Pitt is now admitting to news media that the aborted babies are still alive at the time their kidneys are cut out for NIH grant money. Pitt’s grant application for GUDMAP advertised this to the federal government and that labor induction abortions, where the baby is pushed out of the mother whole, would be ‘used to obtain the tissue.’ The plain meaning of the GUDMAP grant application, and the University of Pittsburgh’s statement today explaining it, is that Pitt and the Planned Parenthood abortion providers responsible for its ‘research’ abortions are allowing babies, some of the age of viability, to be delivered alive, and then killing them by cutting their kidneys out.”

Daleiden continues: “If Bill Barr knew about this as Attorney General and did nothing, he should be impeached and hauled before Congress to explain himself. Merrick Garland even promised the Senate Judiciary Committee he would make decisions about fetal trafficking prosecutions based on the facts and the law. The fact pattern here in Pittsburgh and elsewhere demands that this Kermit Gosnell-like activity be brought to justice under the law. Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose NIAID office funds nearly 60% of NIH-sponsored fetal experimentation, was recently grilled by Senator Rand Paul about unethical government-sponsored gain-of-function experiments. The Senate Judiciary Committee should call Barr, Garland, FBI Director Wray, NIH Director Collins, Fauci, and representatives of Pitt and Planned Parenthood to face the same imperative scrutiny for the enabling of partial-birth abortions and infanticide in the government-sponsored human trafficking of aborted infants.”

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Aborted Infants’ Continued Blood Flow Advertised in Racist University of Pittsburgh Grant Application to NIH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ABORTED INFANTS’ CONTINUED BLOOD FLOW ADVERTISED IN RACIST UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH GRANT APPLICATION TO NIH
Newly-Released Public FOIA Records Obtained by The Center for Medical Progress Indicate Organ Harvesting from Aborted Infants Delivered Alive, Targeted by Race

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 3—Judicial Watch and The Center for Medical Progress announced today that they have received disturbing public records from the NIH about government-sponsored fetal experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh, which describe “minimiz[ing]” the “warm ischemic time,” or time without blood flow, of aborted fetal organs and targeting pregnant women and fetuses based on race.

David Daleiden, founder and president of The Center for Medical Progress, states, “The NIH grant application for just one of Pitt’s numerous experiments with aborted infants reads like an episode of American Horror Story. Infants in the womb, some old enough to be viable, are being aborted alive and killed for organ harvesting, in order to bring in millions of dollars in taxpayer funding for Pitt and the Planned Parenthood abortion business it supports. People are outraged by such disregard for the lives of the vulnerable. Law enforcement and public officials should act immediately to bring the next Kermit Gosnell to justice under the law.”

The records were produced by NIH in response to a FOIA request submitted by CMP over a year ago and a federal lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on behalf of CMP after NIH’s inexplicable delays. The documents include the University of Pittsburgh’s original NIH grant application in 2015 to be the fetal tissue distribution hub for the GenitoUrinary Developmental Molecular Anatomy Project, or GUDMAP, program.

In the $3 million grant application, Pitt proposes that its existing fetal tissue collections “can be significantly ramped up” (pg. 7 of grant application) to supply GUDMAP program researchers across the country with aborted fetal kidneys, bladders, and other organs and body parts from healthy fetuses aborted up to 6 months old.

Pitt advertises several points to NIH for why Pitt will be the best location for a “distribution hub” for supplying large numbers of aborted fetal body parts to NIH researchers, focusing on Pitt’s “over 18 years of experience” collecting body parts from aborted babies. Chillingly, Pitt announces under point number 5, “Ischemia time is minimized”: “We record the warm ischemic time on our samples and take steps to keep it at a minimum to ensure the highest quality biological specimens. We get feedback from our users and utilize this feedback to tailor our collection processes on a case-by-case basis to maximize the needs of investigators.” (pg. 62). Later in the application, Pitt describes “labor induction” as a “procedure that will be used to obtain the tissue” (pg. 73).

According to the NIH, warm ischemia time is “the time a tissue, organ, or body part remains at body temperature after its blood supply has been reduced or cut off but before it is cooled or reconnected to a blood supply.” If the fetus’ heartbeat and blood circulation continue in a labor induction abortion for harvesting organs, it means the fetus is being delivered while still alive and the cause of death is the removal of the organs.

Furthermore, Pitt also states in the application that its GUDMAP fetal harvesting program will feature “Inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity” and sets quotas of 50% white patients and aborted fetuses, and 50% minority patients and fetuses, with a full 25% of the fetuses harvested to come from Black women (pgs. 74-76). Allegheny County, the major metropolitan area from which Pitt-based abortion practices draw patients, is 80% white and only 13% Black.

CMP and Daleiden cited this part of the GUDMAP NIH application in their amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson 15-week abortion limit case.

CMP is responsible for the 2015 undercover video series that exposed top-level Planned Parenthood leadership resorting to partial-birth abortions to sell fetal body parts, resulting in the closure of three Planned Parenthood-partnered biotech companies and the termination of Planned Parenthood from multiple State funding programs. Earlier this year, CMP released a video documenting the disturbing government-sponsored fetal trafficking and experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood’s integral role in Pitt’s programs.

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The press release from Judicial Watch is available here: https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-releases/hhs-documents-organ-harvesting/

Learn more about CMP’s work here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org

MEDIA ADVISORY: David Daleiden and The Center for Medical Progress File Amicus Curiae Brief in Supreme Court Abortion Limit Case

On Wednesday, The Center for Medical Progress and its founder David Daleiden filed an amicus curiae brief with the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson (No. 19-1392), the case on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion limit. To view the brief, click here.

At the center of uncovering and reporting on the sale and trafficking of aborted fetal body parts in America, The Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden are in a unique position to inform the Court of the facts on the ground about late term abortions and fetal organ harvesting, laying out a concise argument to uphold Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act of 2018 and protect “pre-viability” infants under the law.  The Center and Daleiden conclude the following:

If a four-month old child vulnerable to abortion is old enough to be sold for organ harvesting experiments, he or she is old enough to be protected from elective abortion. This Court must uphold Mississippi’s law. (page 22)

Other quotes from the brief include:

Ironically, it is precisely from this point when the fetus becomes most recognizably a fellow human being, that the fetuses vulnerable to abortion become most useful as an experimental biologic “resource.” Even though four-month-old infants in the womb move, kick, suck their thumbs, hiccup, and demonstrate a readily discernible heartbeat and brainwaves, and even though the Constitution guarantees that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude” shall exist in America nor that any person be deprived of life without due process of law, U.S. Const., amends. XIII § 1, XIV § 1, these same children can be routinely killed through live dismemberment abortions or trafficked and sold for experimental use. (page 3)

Due to this Court’s antiquated, 1900s-era abortion precedents, absent laws like Mississippi’s, unborn-victims-of-violence laws do not protect the very same unborn victims from the violence of predatory businesses that operate with the explicit purposes of killing them by abortion and selling them for experimentation. (page 4)

If a human infant in utero is old enough to be trafficked for his or her organs, he or she should be old enough to be protected by the State from elective abortion. (page 7)

The “pre-viability” infants Mississippi seeks to protect with the Gestational Age Act are the same group most vulnerable for organ trafficking and experimentation. (page 9)

It is impossible to look at the stacks and stacks of invoices for the body parts of premature or “pre-viable” infants that have been published through public records requests and not plainly recognize that in the trafficking of aborted fetuses for experimentation, human beings are being bought and sold for their usefulness to someone else’s labor. Few State interests could be more compelling than that of stamping out such vestigial barbarism completely. (pages 11-12)

To schedule an interview with David Daleiden, email media@centerformedicalprogress.org or call 949.734.0859.

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NEW VIDEO: Stop Human Trafficking of Aborted Infants

On the six-year anniversary of its undercover video series catching top Planned Parenthood leadership negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts, The Center for Medical Progress released a new summary video of the results of its reporting, a re-release of the uncut footage of the undercover encounters that Planned Parenthood accuses of being “heavily edited” or “doctored”, and the following statement:

Six years ago, The Center for Medical Progress began releasing a series of undercover videos that caught top-level Planned Parenthood leadership trafficking and selling aborted baby body parts. The videos documented the horrifying facts about fetal trafficking and experimentation and pushed these barbaric practices out into the light in a public conversation that continues to the present day.

The videos shut down Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts companies in southern California: Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, DaVinci Biosciences, LLC, and DV Biologics, LLC. The DaVinci companies admitted illegally selling aborted fetal body parts from Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties and were shut down in a $7.8 million settlement with the local District Attorney, who credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful prosecution.

The Texas Inspector General’s Office found violations of medical standards and ethics in illegal fetal tissue trafficking on the videos at Planned Parenthood, and Texas terminated Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid based on the wrongdoing documented in the recordings. Planned Parenthood sued Texas claiming the videos showed no wrongdoing, and twice the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that the undercover videos were an accurate, authentic, and reliable basis to disqualify Planned Parenthood from taxpayer funding. On May 13, 2021, Planned Parenthood dropped their lawsuit and surrendered to the defending based on the videos.

CMP’s undercover videos also prompted an ongoing FBI and U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Planned Parenthood and others for illegal transfers of aborted fetal tissue.

The full truth about government-sponsored human trafficking of aborted infants has yet to be revealed. Planned Parenthood and their powerful political allies have retaliated viciously against the publication of the videos, in a telling admission of how badly they got caught and how damning and incriminating the full truth will be. Today, we demand that the human trafficking of aborted infants and their body parts stop and that public officials at all levels bring those responsible to justice under the law.

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NEW VIDEO: Government-Sponsored Fetal Experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW VIDEO EXPOSES GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED TRAFFICKING OF ABORTED BABIES AT PITT WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Tomorrow, David Daleiden of The Center for Medical Progress Will Testify About Fetal Experimentation Before Pennsylvania House Committee on Health

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

PITTSBURGH, May 3–The Center for Medical Progress released a detailed new video today documenting shocking government-sponsored experiments on aborted human fetuses at the University of Pittsburgh, and the local Planned Parenthood’s participation in the fetus trafficking.

Publicly available information demonstrates that Pitt hosts some of the most barbaric experiments carried out on aborted human infants, including scalping 5-month-old aborted fetuses to stitch onto lab rats, exporting fetal kidneys across the country, and killing infants delivered alive for liver harvesting–funded by U.S. taxpayers via the National Institutes of Health, and in particular Dr. Anthony Fauci’s NIAID office.

Local Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania abortion providers supply the aborted fetuses, while Pitt sponsors the local Planned Parenthood’s operations, in what looks like an illegal Quid Pro Quo for fetal body parts, forbidden by 42 U.S. Code 289g-2 and 18 Pennsylvania Statutes 3216. Pennsylvania law also makes it a felony to experiment on a living fetus or to fail to provide immediate medical care to an infant born alive.

Tomorrow, David Daleiden, founder and chief executive of the Center for Medical Progress, will testify at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Health Committee hearing on “Fetal Experimentation”, where he will discuss the fetal trafficking at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood Western Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh’s Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Anantha Shekhar, is also expected to testify.

Who:
-The University of Pittsburgh, Planned Parenthood, CMP, and David Daleiden

What:
-CMP releases new video: “Government-Sponsored Fetal Experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood”
-Daleiden testifies before Pennsylvania House Health Committee hearing: “Fetal Experimentation”

When:
-Video Release: Today, Monday May 3, 8:00 a.m. Eastern
-Testimony: Tuesday, May 4; 8:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. Eastern

Where:
-Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JUzqswKZs
-Testimony: https://livestream.com/pahousegop

David Daleiden is available for further comment or interviews today and anytime after Tuesday’s testimony. Please email media@centerformedicalprogress.org or call 949.734.0859.

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JUzqswKZs

To learn more about CMP, visit www.centerformedicalprogress.org

Undercover Investigators with Planned Parenthood Videos Appeal $16 Million Retaliation Lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATORS WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD VIDEOS APPEAL $16 MILLION RETALIATION LAWSUIT
Planned Parenthood Sued The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, Others for Releasing Videos of Aborted Baby Body Parts Sales, But Did Not Allege Defamation

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

SAN FRANCISCO, Mar. 1—Over the weekend, The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, and CMP’s undercover investigators filed their opening briefs on appeal at the federal Ninth Circuit, seeking reversal of Planned Parenthood’s $16 million retaliation lawsuit over CMP’s release of undercover videos, which show Planned Parenthood leadership callously negotiating the sale of aborted fetus body parts.

After the release of the videos in 2015, Planned Parenthood faced Congressional investigations and criminal and regulatory referrals to state, federal, and local officials over its participation in illegal transfers of human fetal tissue for valuable consideration (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). Business partners in Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue program in southern California admitted illegally selling fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood and were shut down in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney, who credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful prosecution. But in January 2016, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court in retaliation for the undercover videos, suing for fraud, trespass, unlawful recording, and breach of contract and seeking damages of over $20 million—but conspicuously refused to bring a claim for defamation.

The judge, William Orrick III, initially slashed that number down to barely $400,000 in consultant fees, but then allowed a San Francisco jury to triple it under the federal RICO statute and add nearly $1 million in punitive damages. Then Judge Orrick himself added $13 million in attorneys fees.

Over 4 different opening briefs filed at the Ninth Circuit on Friday, CMP, Daleiden, the undercover investigators, and other co-defendants argue and alert the federal appeals court:

  • Judge Orrick allowed Planned Parenthood to make an end run around the First Amendment, where Planned Parenthood sued for research and management costs stemming from the release of the undercover videos, but did not prove in court the videos were false or defamatory—in fact, Planned Parenthood admitted in court the videos were authentic. Judge Orrick’s $16 million fine for the videos and injunction against further investigation awarded to Planned Parenthood, without any defamation claim, are a threat to all undercover reporting.

  • In allowing Planned Parenthood’s case to go forward without proving the video reporting was false, Judge Orrick denied CMP’s First Amendment rights and protections for speech, blocked significant discovery on Planned Parenthood’s fetal research practices, and forbade any Defense based on the truth of the video reporting.

  • Judge Orrick excluded the expert testimony of Dr. Forrest O. Smith, the longest continuously practicing abortion provider in the United States, who testified the videos are evidence infants are being delivered alive and killed through organ harvesting in Planned Parenthood’s fetal research programs.

  • Judge Orrick allowed Planned Parenthood to sue CMP for “fraud” and “breach of contract” for operating a “fake” fetal tissue company, when the “real” fetal tissue companies Planned Parenthood was contracting with like DaVinci Biosciences were admittedly criminal.

  • Planned Parenthood’s fraud, trespass, and RICO claims presented no evidence to distinguish CMP investigators’ undercover networking with the abortion industry from pure speech protected by the First Amendment, and 9th Circuit and Supreme Court precedent. The “fake IDs” shown by some investigators were creative props never used for government ID purposes and cannot be the basis for a tripled RICO fine.

  • Planned Parenthood’s “breach of contract” claims are based on standardized tradeshow agreements for exhibit booth space, which concluded with the end of each tradeshow and where undercover investigators ran exhibit booths without incident or injury.

  • The undercover video recordings at issue in the case were all made of professional conversations in public areas where third parties easily overheard—yet Judge Orrick would not allow the Defense to play the full videos of the conversations to the jury.

  • David Daleiden led and managed the entire undercover project and video release, with investigative contractors playing limited roles and former CMP board directors minimally involved. But Planned Parenthood picked and chose without evidence who to sue for money based on Planned Parenthood’s own conspiracy theories.

  • One undercover investigator did not identify as pro-life and used his own name and ID to attend Planned Parenthood tradeshows—yet Orrick still allowed Planned Parenthood to sue him for “fraud” and “trespass” because he assisted a pro-life publication. Judge Orrick then punished the other Defendants further for actually subscribing to pro-life advocacy. The real “crime” in Orrick’s courtroom was pro-life speech, and guilt by association with it.

  • Judge Orrick helped open and operate a Planned Parenthood abortion referral clininc in San Francisco that brought in $100,000/year to a non-profit center that Orrick directed. Orrick’s Planned Parenthood clinic referred pregnant patients to the same Planned Parenthood fetal tissue program with StemExpress that CMP’s reporting exposed. During the lawsuits in his courtroom, Judge Orrick’s wife’s Facebook account used a photo of him to “Like” posts calling CMP and Daleiden’s reporting “domestic terrorism” and calling for Daleiden’s criminal prosecution. CMP and Daleiden sought to have Judge Orrick disqualified from the case, but Orrick refused to step down, refused to disclose his relationship with Planned Parenthood, and attempted to influence another judge to keep him on the case.

Daleiden notes, “Planned Parenthood got caught selling aborted baby body parts in the undercover videos, and their fetal trafficking programs have started to be held accountable. Yet because of a biased federal judge, who previously helped run a Planned Parenthood clinic in the fetal trafficking network, Planned Parenthood has been allowed to sue me and CMP for successfully reporting the facts while blocking us from defending ourselves.”

Daleiden continues, “The animus against free speech about abortion and fetal trafficking was palapable in Judge Orrick’s courtroom, where no evidence against Planned Parenthood would be admitted and the real ‘crime’ is being pro-life. This judgment does not reflect equality or fairness and puts freedom of the press and the rule of law at risk for all Americans. This judgment must be reversed.”

Charles LiMandri of LiMandri & Jonna, special counsel to the Thomas More Society and lead trial counsel in the case, states, “Following the mockery of a trial in this case, I wrote an article in November 2019 to explain why the defense had such a strong record for appeal. The appellate briefs filed for David Daleiden and the other defendants on Friday, February 26, 2021, reflect the full strength of that appellate record. The issues in this case are vitally important for our constitutional freedoms of speech and the press, as well as the future of undercover journalism in our nation. David Daleiden and his co-defendants deserve to be rewarded for their courageous efforts to expose the atrocities of Planned Parenthood’s illegal trafficking in aborted baby body parts. Instead, a biased trial court hamstrung their defense with extremely one-sided rulings resulting in a monstrously unjust verdict in favor of Planned Parenthood. We are looking forward to finally obtaining justice for our heroic clients through the appellate process. Ultimately, it is Planned Parenthood that must answer for its heinous crimes against humanity.”

Harmeet Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group, representing Daleiden and CMP, states, “This appeal implicates fundamental First Amendment values and further important legal issues of broad relevance beyond this case. This unprecedented, draconian treatment of undercover journalists amounts to selective censorship and punishment of pro-life views. Planned Parenthood refused to try the veracity of the undercover videos before the jury, yet this favored litigant was allowed to reap a windfall in defamation-style damages while our clients were blocked from mounting a full defense. The future of investigative journalism in the Ninth Circuit may well turn on the outcome of this case.”

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To learn more about CMP’s undercover reporting visit: centerformedicalprogress.org