Slanderers caught in their own trap

REVENGE IS sweet.

This week, a Texas grand jury charged with investigating allegations that Planned Parenthood was engaged in illegally selling fetal tissue ended up instead indicting two right-wing activists who orchestrated the release of a series of deceptively edited videos smearing the health care provider last year with that false accusation.

Indicted on charges of tampering with a governmental record--a second-degree felony that could bring a sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted--were David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, both operatives of the deceptively named Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The charge apparently stems from their obtaining or using fake driver's licenses to get into a Planned Parenthood office.

Daleiden also was hit with a misdemeanor charge of attempting to purchase or sell human organs. That charge reportedly stems from an e-mail Daleiden apparently sent to Planned Parenthood last June offering to buy fetal tissue for $1,600 per sample. (Planned Parenthood never responded.) The irony of that charge is particularly delicious given that Daleiden, the director of the CMP, was the driving force behind the release of the videos purporting to show a Planned Parenthood official discussing the "selling" of fetal tissue.

The videos, released in July, contained footage from secretly recorded lunch meetings with Planned Parenthood Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola and Medical Directors' Council President Mary Gatter, in which Daleidan and Merritt posed as representatives of medical research companies.

Unedited footage later released by the CMP itself actually showed that Planned Parenthood did nothing illegal, but instead received minor, and legal, compensation to cover costs in instances where it donated fetal tissue--with the consent of patients--for medical research. Of course, the right has never let actual facts get in the way when it comes to trying to curtail women's right to access abortion.

The response was entirely predictable--screaming outrage from the right about Planned Parenthood's supposed profiting off selling "baby parts," followed by attempts to strip the organization of federal funding, despite the fact that federal funds are not used to provide abortions.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was grilled in front of Congress even after independent analysis showed the videos were deceptive, and Richards was forced to apologize publicly for Nucatola's supposed lack of sensitivity in talking about fetal tissue donation.

Right-wing politicians in at least 12 states opened investigations into Planned Parenthood, and more have tried to cut funding or otherwise curtail the group's operations. Leading Republicans went into attack mode--like presidential contenders like Carly Fiorina, who repeatedly spewed discredited nonsense about the group. (Fiorina's response to the indictment of Deleidan and Merritt? She again claimed to reporters that "Planned Parenthood has been trafficking in body parts.")

At the worst, the lies promoted by the videos helped contribute directly to violence directed at Planned Parenthood clinic patients and workers when, in late November, Robert Dear walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with an AK-47. Before he was done, Dear had killed three people and wounded several more. Dear said the words "No more baby parts" during his arrest and later said in court that he was "a warrior for the babies."

AS PART of the attack on Planned Parenthood nationally, Devon Anderson, the Republican prosecutor in Harris County, Texas, opened a grand jury investigation into accusations of criminal wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood, after being asked to do so by Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick. The investigation lasted two months and involved multiple law enforcement agencies.

It's not hard to guess what outcome Patrick was hoping for, given that he said in an October interview that Planned Parenthood is "nothing more than a referral service…They don’t do anything except profit from killing babies and then selling body parts of those aborted babies."

As with all the other state and federal investigations resulting from the videos to date, however, the Texas grand jury could find no evidence that Planned Parenthood had broken any laws--and in a surprising twist, Daleiden and Merritt were indicted instead.

For their part, Daleidan and Merritt's lawyers claim that the two were merely engaging in tried-and-true tactics of investigative reporters. But that's a stretch, since the CMP didn't conduct an investigation so much as engineer an attempt at entrapment. And when even that didn't succeed in luring someone to incriminating the organization, the CMP still tried to smear Planned Parenthood with false allegations.

Despite the sweet knowledge that Daleidan and Merritt might face a day in court at some point, the damage from their lies has been considerable--giving politicians more ammunition in the sick game of political football they play with women's right to abortion.

In a climate in which the ability of women to access abortion has become increasingly constricted by funding cuts, bans on abortion procedures, and laws designed to shut down clinics on spurious grounds, the sad fact is that the indictment of Daleidan and Merritt won't slow down the right's attack.

In fact, even after the Texas grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the state attorney general's office and the State Health and Human Services Commission would continue to investigate the abortion provider. Abbott said in a statement, "The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue."

That's already illegal of course, but Abbott and others on the right want to keep up the political theater. As the New York Times wrote, "This is a purely political campaign of intimidation and persecution meant to destroy an organization whose mission to serve women's health care needs the governor abhors."

The right wants to deny women the right to control their own bodies--and they'll go to any length to do so, whether that means lying about Planned Parenthood or casting people like Daleidan and Merritt as martyrs for the cause. Our job is to expose them at every turn--and rebuild the fight for abortion rights and access across the U.S.