Planned Parenthood Is Suing the Group Behind Deceptive Undercover Videos

On Thursday, Planned Parenthood filed a civil lawsuit against the anti-abortion activists who released a series of heavily edited videos this summer in an attempt to malign the organization. Individuals in the group—known as the Center for Medical Progress—spent years constructing an elaborate front in order to secretly record Planned Parenthood officials; according to the suit, they committed fraud, racketeering, and trespassing in the process.

The suit names several CMP members as defendants, including the organization's chief executive officer, David Daleiden, a "known-anti abortion extremist"; the group's secretary, Troy Newman, "a dangerous and reckless extremist"; the CMP chief financial officer Albin Rhomberg, "a well-known anti-abortion extremist who has repeatedly harassed and accosted women and reproductive health providers"; and BIOMAX, a fictitious tissue procurement company established by the CMP in order to gain access to Planned Parenthood conferences.

As Broadly has previously reported, both Newman and Rhomberg have open ties to violent anti-abortion extremism. Perhaps most damningly, Newman runs Operation Rescue, an radical anti-abortion group with well-documented ties to the 2009 assassination of Dr. Tiller, an abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas. In October, 2015, Newman was refused entrance into Australia after it came to light that he had advocated for the execution of abortion providers in a book published in 2000.

"CMP's reckless and dangerous actions have created a poisonous environment that fuels political attacks on access to reproductive health care and feeds threats against our health centers," said Kathy Kneer, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, in a statement. "We're going on the offensive to expose this fraud for what it is and hold the people behind it accountable."

In July 2015, the Center for Medical Progress began releasing a series of videos purporting to show that Planned Parenthood profits off of the sale of fetal tissue—a claim that Planned Parenthood has vociferously and repeatedly denied. (After receiving abortion care, women can elect to donate fetal tissue for scientific research, according to Planned Parenthood officials; any money exchanged acts as reimbursement for costs associated with transporting the tissue. In October, Planned Parenthood announced it would no longer accept these funds, in order to "take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood to advance an anti-abortion political agenda.") One CMP press release quoted in the suit, for instance, declared that "Planned Parenthood's criminal conspiracy to make money off of aborted baby parts reaches to the very highest levels of their organization." Another accused the reproductive health organization of "illegal trafficking of aborted fetal parts."

In the months following the initial release of the video, incidents of harassment at Planned Parenthood health centers increased nine fold, according to the suit, and there have been multiple attempted arsons at family planning facilities across the country. And, on November 27, 2015, a gunman entered a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and opened fire, killing three and injuring nine. In court, he later said that he was "a warrior for the babies."

In a statement, Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens decried Daleiden and his associates. "The people behind this fraud lied and broke the law in order to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood," she said. "This lawsuit exposes the elaborate, illegal conspiracy designed to block women's access to safe and legal abortion."

The suit accuses Daleiden and his associates of engaging in a "a complex criminal enterprise" over the course of several years in order to "demonize Planned Parenthood, harass and intimidate its dedicated staff, and interrupt its operations." In all, the defendants are accused of violating the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), in addition to engaging in wire fraud, mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording, and trespassing.

As the suit clearly shows, the amount of work the group put into infiltrating Planned Parenthood is staggering: Over the course of three years, the lawsuit alleges, "Newman, Daleiden, and their unknown conspirators set up two false entities: CMP and BIOMAX." In establishing these organizations, Daleiden and his co-conspirators violated numerous federal and state laws, according to the suit. They allegedly adopted false identities, used false identification, misrepresented both organizations to government agencies—which could constitute felony perjury—and disseminated fraudulent advertisements. Once they had gained access to Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation conferences, the alleged illegal activity only increased: The defendants are also accused of illegally recording private conversations in violation of privacy laws in California, Florida, and Maryland, and in violation of federal law.

In July 2015, the National Abortion Federation (NAF) filed a federal suit against the Center for Medical Progress with claims that mirror Planned Parenthood's. (Individuals posing as BIOMAX employees also infiltrated at least two NAF conferences.) In a phone interview, NAF president Vicki Saporta affirmed the necessity of holding Daledein, Newman, and their associates accountable. "It's important that legislators and politicians and anti-choice individuals, organizations, and extremists do not embrace him and his falsehoods," she said. "It's important that they understand the consequences of his actions."

In the suit, Planned Parenthood states that it's seeking compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages. Daleiden, for his part, seems fairly unintimidated by the volume of accusations against himself and his organization: On the CMP Facebook page, he wrote, "GAME ON, PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!! I look forward to taking your depositions."