Post by Logan on Feb 7, 2016 2:58:41 GMT -6
A federal judge in San Francisco has dealt another blow to antiabortion activists who infiltrated national meetings of abortion providers, saying they used fraud to gain access, failed to uncover any illegal activity and are prohibited from making public any of the recordings or other information they obtained.
David Daleiden and his colleagues at the Center for Medical Progress, posing as executives of a fetal research company, repeatedly tried to trap members of the National Abortion Federation into expressing interest in illegally selling fetal tissue, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said late Friday in an injunction against Daleiden’s group. Orrick said members of the group, in conversations they secretly recorded, used words like “profit” and “top dollar” and quoted abortion providers as expressing interest — but never found a single instance of anyone agreeing to sell fetal tissue for profit.
Despite Daleiden’s claims that he uncovered lawbreaking, the judge said, “there is no such evidence in (the) recordings,” but considerable evidence of deception by the antiabortion group.
Judge cites rising threats
The activists “created a fake company and lied to gain access to NAF’s annual meetings,” where they signed promises to keep everything they learned confidential, Orrick said. Since Daleiden’s organization released its first group of edited videos in July of its meetings with Planned Parenthood members — some of whom they had initially contacted at the National Abortion Federation meetings — there has been a “dramatic increase in the volume and extent of threats to and harassment of NAF and its members,” Orrick said.
Read more: www.sfgate.com/nation/article/S-F-federal-judge-deals-new-blow-to-antiabortion-6812210.php
David Daleiden and his colleagues at the Center for Medical Progress, posing as executives of a fetal research company, repeatedly tried to trap members of the National Abortion Federation into expressing interest in illegally selling fetal tissue, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said late Friday in an injunction against Daleiden’s group. Orrick said members of the group, in conversations they secretly recorded, used words like “profit” and “top dollar” and quoted abortion providers as expressing interest — but never found a single instance of anyone agreeing to sell fetal tissue for profit.
Despite Daleiden’s claims that he uncovered lawbreaking, the judge said, “there is no such evidence in (the) recordings,” but considerable evidence of deception by the antiabortion group.
Judge cites rising threats
The activists “created a fake company and lied to gain access to NAF’s annual meetings,” where they signed promises to keep everything they learned confidential, Orrick said. Since Daleiden’s organization released its first group of edited videos in July of its meetings with Planned Parenthood members — some of whom they had initially contacted at the National Abortion Federation meetings — there has been a “dramatic increase in the volume and extent of threats to and harassment of NAF and its members,” Orrick said.
Read more: www.sfgate.com/nation/article/S-F-federal-judge-deals-new-blow-to-antiabortion-6812210.php