Planned Parenthood Files Lawsuit Against the Center for Medical Progress

Planned Parenthood announced Thursday that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind controversial undercover videos that raised allegations that the nation’s largest abortion provider is trafficking aborted fetal body parts.

"Game on,” David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress said in a statement. “I look forward to deposing all the CEOs, Medical Directors, and their co-conspirators who participated in Planned Parenthood's illegal baby body parts racket."

The lawsuit names the Center for Medical Progress, Biomax Procument Services and Daleiden as defendants, among others.

According to Planned Parenthood’s complaint, their lawsuit “details a complex criminal enterprise conceived and executed by anti-abortion extremists. The express aim of the enterprise — which stretched over years and involved fake companies, fake identifications, and large-scale illegal taping — was to demonize Planned Parenthood, harass and intimidate its dedicated staff, and interrupt its operations, all with the ultimate goal of interfering with women’s access to legal abortion."

The Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood executives appearing to negotiate the price “per specimen” of aborted fetal body parts with actors portraying buyers from a human biologics company.

Profiting from the sale of human organs – including those of the unborn – is a felony in the United States.

Spokespersons for Planned Parenthood have called the videos “heavily edited,” denied making a profit from illegal transactions and asserted that they are merely “reimbursed” for expenses associated with “tissue donation.”

In the first video released by the Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, said that “we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung [and] liver,” and estimated a price of $30 to $100 “per specimen.”

An analysis of the videos commissioned by Planned Parenthood last summer “did not reveal widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation.”

An independent forensic investigation found the videos to be “authentic.”

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