LA Times: Felony charges ‘disturbing overreach’ for pro-lifers behind Planned Parenthood sting videos

The Los Angeles Times editorial board slammed what it called the state’s “disturbing overreach” in its decision to prosecute felonies of two pro-life activists for undercover videos filmed primarily at Planned Parenthood facilities.

“Felony charges are a disturbing overreach for the duo behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos,” the editorial board declared.

“It’s disturbingly aggressive for [state Attorney General Xavier] Becerra to apply this criminal statute to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be,” the board also wrote.  

{mosads}The pro-life group “Center for Medical Progress” recorded most of the video footage in California two years ago. The videos included conversations with Planned Parenthood officials around what the Center for Medical Progress alleged was Planned Parenthood profiting from selling fetal parts.

Upon being released online, the videos dominated mostly right-leaning media outlets for weeks in the fall of 2015. 

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina broached the videos in the second presidential debate of the primary season, while calling for an end to federal funding to Planned Parenthood, an organization that has been in existence since 1916.

Planned Parenthood apologized at the time for the insensitive tone of one of its recorded employees when talking about abortions and body parts, but the organization insisted it had done nothing illegal. 

David Daleiden, 28, and Sandra Merritt, 63, were charged with 14 counts of illegal recording and one count of conspiracy. 

California amended a law in 2016 that makes it a felony to put recordings into the public domain if they involve conversations with health care providers.