A Texas grand jury that investigated criminal misconduct against Planned Parenthood over videos showing the organization selling fetal body parts cleared the healthcare provider from charges and instead indicted two people who were involved in making the undercover videos.
Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said in a statement that the jury gave a clean chit to Planned Parenthood, and none from the organization's offices in Gulf Coast belt have been indicted.
Instead, Center of Medical Progress director David Daleiden, the man behind organizing the recording of undercover videos over 3 years and Sandra Merritt, one of the CMP employees, were indicted for tampering with governmental records to make fake IDs resembling California-issued driving licenses to gain entry into an April meeting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston.
Daleiden, who posed as a representative for a Biotech startup, is also facing indictment over a misdemeanor charge related to the purchase of fetal tissue.
However, Daleiden said in a statement: "The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws. We respect the processes of the Harris County district attorney, and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well. Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see."
CMP claimed that the videos disclose the sale of fetal body parts by Planned Parenthood, a charge which the organization denies.
Planned Parenthood sued the makers of the video, saying that this was an effort to cause defamation of the health-care organization, an invasion of privacy and illegal trespassing.
Harris County Clerk's website informed that a warrant has been issued against Daleiden.
"We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case," Anderson said in a statement.
Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement that investigations into the Planned Parenthood activities would continue and that "nothing about today's announcement in Harris County impacts the state's ongoing investigation. The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue."
Spokesman for Planned Parenthood Eric Ferrero claimed that laws were broken in the process of making the undercover videos.
"These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda. As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it's become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we're glad they're being held accountable," Ferrero said in a statement.
"These anti-abortion extremists spent three years creating a fake company, creating fake identities, lying, and breaking the law. When they couldn't find any improper or illegal activity, they made it up," he said.
Daleiden backed his views in an editorial for USA Today.
"Six months after these revelations broke, Planned Parenthood still cannot deny that the shocking and indicting words on the videos were spoken by its own senior level leadership," he wrote. "Not a single Planned Parenthood executive caught on camera has come forward to deny that it is her voice, image or statements being depicted."
Donating of fetal tissue is legal in United States after consent from the mother, but sale of tissue is illegal, as well as manipulating abortion methods and timing to dedicate it to research.
