California authorities on Tuesday announced an end to their nearly decade-long criminal prosecution of an independent journalist and an anti-abortion activist who secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood allegedly selling aborted fetal tissue.
The pair at the center of the legal fight, founder of the Center for Medical Progress David Daleiden and journalist Sandra Merritt, agreed to a “no-contest” plea deal on a single charge, resulting in no fines or prison sentences. California prosecutors had at one point pursued up to 15 felony counts in a case Daleiden said was politically motivated “lawfare.”
“My case is the first and only one that was ever criminally charged by the state attorney general’s office, and it was because of Planned Parenthood’s demand to cover up the information that was on those video recordings about how they’re using partial birth abortions to sell late-term aborted baby body parts at their taxpayer funded mega clinics across the state of California and across the country,” Daleiden told Fox News Digital in an interview on Tuesday.
“I’m no expert, but I definitely think that the election has something to do with it,” Daleiden said when asked why he thinks prosecutors dropped the charges all these years later. Daleiden dubbed the litigation “lawfare,” in a post on X.
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Founder of Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, and pro-life journalist Sandra Merritt had their California case dropped with no prison time or fines on Monday. The pair secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood allegedly selling aborted fetal tissue. (Getty Images)
In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, California State Attorney General Rob Bonta said, “While the Trump Administration is issuing pardons to individuals convicted of harming reproductive health clinics and providers, my office is securing criminal convictions to ensure that Californians can exercise their constitutional rights to reproductive healthcare.”
“We will not hesitate to continue taking action against those who threaten access to abortion care — whether by recording confidential conversations or other means,” he said.
Daleiden and Merritt’s plea agreement requires no contact with victims, no public identification of them, and compliance with all laws, including restrictions on recording, according to Bonta’s office.
“[T]his entire case was an exercise in grotesquely political weaponization of government.” – pro-life activist David Daleiden
As the then-California Attorney General, Kamala Harris initiated an investigation into Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress, focusing on the legality of their undercover methods and a narrow application of the state’s eavesdropping law following the release of undercover footage. In 2016, a Texas grand jury indicted Daleiden and Merritt on felony charges related to the creation of fake IDs and offering to purchase fetal tissue. These charges, however, were later dismissed.
In April 2016, under then-AG Harris, California authorities raided Daleiden’s home for evidence, prompting questions about her relationship with Planned Parenthood, which has donated to her campaigns and many other Democrats.
Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate months later and resigned as state attorney general in January 2017.
In 2017, California prosecutors under Harris’ successor Xavier Becerra charged Daleiden and Merritt with 15 felony counts, including criminal conspiracy and invasion of privacy, for recording individuals without consent.
“They pursued this case viciously for nine years, because it was such a priority for national Planned Parenthood,” Daleiden said. “But ultimately, it’s a totally weaponized political prosecution. They’re totally wrong on the facts and the law of undercover video reporting in California, all the conversations that me and my team recorded were in public areas where other people could overhear.”
“For the Attorney General’s Office of California to come this far after nine years, and essentially walk away with nothing… just shows this entire case was an exercise in grotesquely political weaponization of government.”
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Planned Parenthood is sending a bus to the DNC. (Getty Images)
When the recordings were released, Planned Parenthood maintained it strictly donates the specimens, charging only for transportation and storage costs.
Some of the videos were recorded in 2015 during meetings between Daleiden’s operatives, posing as representatives of a fetal tissue procurement company, and various Planned Parenthood staff members. The hours-long footage published online showed conversations in which Planned Parenthood providers and executives appeared to negotiate prices for fetal tissue and discuss under-the-table procedures for obtaining it.
Merritt was involved in the undercover operation as one of the key figures behind the release of the footage alongside Daleiden.
“Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong,” Merritt’s attorneys at the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel said in a statement Monday. “She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry.”
According to a 2015 Guardian report, Planned Parenthood stopped accepting reimbursements for its fetal tissue donation program following state and federal probes after Daleiden’s undercover videos.
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North Dakota’s previous restrictions on abortion were challenged in court by what was formerly state’s only abortion clinic. Pictured is an abortion clinic in Idaho. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday, “to end the use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” reinforcing the Hyde Amendment. As a result, organizations like Planned Parenthood, which provide abortion services, may face funding challenges depending on how the organization receives its funds for elective abortions.
According to a blog post by the organization’s political action fund, “60% of Planned Parenthood patients rely on public health programs like Medicaid and Title X.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Harris and Planned Parenthood for comment.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
