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Planned Parenthood Video Makers Indicted; Supreme Court Kills Two Abortion Bans

Hey, Attorney General Jackley! Looking forward to bringing your bill on fetal tissue sales to Senate Judiciary so your friends at the Family Heritage Alliance can pontificate about those deceptive, legally unreliable Planned Parenthood videos from last summer? Better tell them to revise their speeches—a Texas grand jury says the real lawbreakers appear to be the videomakers:

A grand jury here that was investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who made videos of the organization.

In a statement, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said Monday that the director of the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, had been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs.

Another center employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

…Ms. Anderson said in the statement that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing [Manny Fernandez, “2 Abortion Foes Behind Planned Parenthood Videos Are Indicted,” New York Times, 2016.01.25].

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., for the second time in a week, the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear an abortion case and thus has permanently blocked implementation of abortion restrictions. Last week the Supremes let die Arkansas’s ban on abortions after twelve weeks. Today the high Court effectively nullified North Dakota’s fetal heartbeat law, which sought to stop abortions as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women even realize they are pregnant. The failure of those Republican abortion bans should inform South Dakota’s debate over Senator Jeff Monroe’s fetal-pain 20-week abortion ban, because make no mistake: abortion distractors (yes, it’s working, because here I am blogging on the topic again) like Senator Monroe aren’t seeking some fair, scientific standard that establishes a reasonable deadline before which abortions are fine and after which they aren’t. Twenty weeks, twelve weeks, six weeks—Monroe and allies are just throwing spaghetti, hoping anything will stick, and aiming at reducing the legal window for abortion—as well as women’s reproductive privacy, dignity, and autonomy—to zero.

24 Comments

  1. owen reitzel 2016-01-25 17:56

    In other words this bill is a total waste of valuable time

  2. jerry 2016-01-25 18:36

    Next, someone needs to drag that lying ridiculous Hewlett Packard ex chair out to the woodshed for a spanking with a rolled up picture of that burr head Marty Jackley. How many hundreds of thousands is that boy gonna cost us in legal fees? There are plenty of criminals right here for him to prosecute, he can start by looking in the mirror for clues.

  3. jerry 2016-01-25 18:42

    There should be a way to bring suit against legislative procrastinators like Monroe and those other blanks that seem to think they can keep bullying women into submission to their needs. These people are like ticks, once they get there head in, you cannot get them out unless you put a fire on their behinds. There is plenty to do in Pierre that is about finding solutions to problems not making them.

  4. Paul Seamans 2016-01-25 18:51

    Does Planned Parenthood or the ACLU have any lobbyist in Pierre to speak against these bills?

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-01-25 21:38

    Paul, yes on the latter! ACLU as Libby Skarin in Pierre. She went to town on HB 1008 in committee this morning and on SDPB this noon.

    Jerry, the time and money we would need to sue a procrastinating legislator under some new judicial accountability scheme would be more effectively spent in recruiting and running a strong challenger to any underperforming incumbent.

    Owen: yes. Exactly.

  6. Porter Lansing 2016-01-25 22:25

    Many Republican legislators in Pierre lean until they’re crooked on unconstitutional decisions like these for re-election. And many are “beatable” for the same reason. It’s the only connection they have to the voters and they wildly exaggerate their power and dominance over women’s rights. This election cycle is for and about women and The South Dakota Democratic Party women far exceed their red opposition in integrity, dedication and overall political savy.

  7. moses 2016-01-25 22:58

    Porter run for Senate against photo op.

  8. Jana 2016-01-25 23:31

    ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’

  9. Mark Winegar 2016-01-26 06:07

    It’s about time! This issue is complex enough without their misrepresentations of the truth. Meanwhile let’s not forget that abortions are a small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does. In fact, they prevent countless abortions through their family planning efforts.

  10. mike from iowa 2016-01-26 07:36

    There are only two Planned Parenthood clinics that donate body parts. One is in the state of Washington and the other is in California. The parts in question are not sold,they are donated for a fee of $60 to handle the cost of shipping and handling.PP is not making money off this venture.

    The final analysis will be wingnuts will fly in the face of all evidence to the contrary and believe that these videos are not edited and PP sells harvested baby parts. Status quo.

  11. Porter Lansing 2016-01-26 08:05

    SoDak voters. Remember this when you are asked to give credibility to Mr. Hickey. He’s prone to making accusations and commands well before the facts are fully investigated. In other words, knee jerk, flying off the handle expressions of deception. It was hateful rhetoric from him and Fred Deutsch and others that provoked that unstable man to murder many at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, yet no apologies or admission of being wrong is expected. Only more personally motivated guilt trips for women and women’s rights in South Dakota.
    ~A tweet to me from @stevehickey dated Dec 3, 2015
    @PorterLansing they were caught red handed selling baby parts. Get your head out of the sand. You are confused about right and wrong.

  12. mike from iowa 2016-01-26 08:26

    Minor correction ti my post @ 7:36-Planned Parenthood no longer accepts contributions to cover the costs of shipping fetal parts. They cover those costs themselves.

    11 red state gubmints have investigated PP for illegally selling baby parts and all 11 states have cleared PP of any wrong doing.

  13. O 2016-01-26 10:48

    But therein lies the beauty of dogma, the narrative is unaffected by facts. Having lost the evidence for the claim in no way means stopping the repetition of the claim. In no possible way will the facts and indictment of these falsehoods ever reach the mass distribution of the original accusations. True believers are undaunted.

  14. Dana P 2016-01-26 15:43

    Several other states have also investigated the “selling baby parts” allegations, and have come up with no wrong doing. (MFI noted this above)

    http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/01/26/3742810/planned-parenthood-investigations-country/

    I dunno Porter L. It appears that your head (as many level heads are) is way above the sand! For so many investigations to come up with nada, sure defeats the “caught red-handed” allegation.

    And to continue this issue and allegations at the expense of taxpayers…… just for political points, is a terrible waste of money.

  15. mike from iowa 2016-01-27 07:15

    Maybe the Scotus has finally decided we are not going to install a kristian Sharia gubmint.

  16. Rorschach 2016-01-27 07:58

    Abortion bills are trotted out mostly in even numbered years. Funny how protection of the unborn is less important in odd numbered years. Sen. Monroe is the latest guy who wants to be a national hero. Before him there was Matt McCaulley and Roger Hunt. Cases take time to get to the Supreme Court. They are all hoping for a Republican president to tilt the Supreme Court to the right before the case on their new law gets there. They know it’s unconstitutional under current decisions, and that’s precisely the point of the bill. They are going to pass this thing this year, and Marty Jackley is going to spend all the money he couldn’t find to test rape kit DNA to defend the unconstitutional law.

  17. bearcreekbat 2016-01-27 10:27

    Wasn’t Pastor Hickey strongly condemning PP based on these bogus videos? Funny that he seems to have lost his enthusiasm for such comments by ignoring this post, isn’t it?

  18. Porter Lansing 2016-01-27 10:50

    Exactly, BCB. Hey, Pastor Crickets and Rep’s. Deutsch and Schoenbeck. There are some places where Republican hate speech and bullying isn’t taken lightly by voters.
    A group of abortion-rights supporters delivered a petition with almost 63,000 signatures from around the world to the state Capitol on Tuesday calling for the resignation of Rep. JoAnn Windholz over her Facebook post condemning Planned Parenthood.
    She made the remarks three days after the Nov. 27 shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic.
    “I can’t think of many things that would be more irresponsible and more outrageous than blaming Planned Parenthood for being shot,” said Christopher Burley of Denver. http://www.denverpost.com/election/ci_29434892/planned-parenthood-supporters-rally-against-republican-lawmaker

  19. jerry 2016-01-27 11:19

    I think the three you mention are fakey flakes Mr. Lansing. I will say that the only thing that Hickey has ever done for the state, ever, is the payday loan bill. That is a big deal. The other two, nothing, natta zilch. Just rehash old hatred is all they have done. How is Hickey’s voter fraud deal coming?

  20. mike from iowa 2016-01-27 13:24

    Fake Noize legal expert????? Napolitano Has pecukiar notions about Republican prosecutors appointed by seriously delusional and indicted rwnj AG 0f Texas-Dan Patrick with orders to git Planned Parenthood for illegally selling baby parts. Dimbulb Megyn-ecologist Kelly sets him up for the kill.
    KELLY: So does this sound like a political hit job? Or what is this?
    Napalitano’s personal opinion of the edited tapes-
    NAPOLITANO: Absolutely. This is a political hit job.
    And anybody that watches these tapes can come to their own conclusion. I submit that if you watch them you will conclude that they did sell body parts and were willing to sell them in the future.

    Sounds like Hickey.

  21. Craig 2016-01-27 13:53

    I won’t defend their stances, but has it occurred to anyone that those particular individuals don’t happen to read this blog on a daily basis and may not know they have been referenced here? Feel free to send them a tweet and ask them for a response but it doesn’t really seem fair to claim they are ignoring the topic when they might be busy with other things.

    Granted I wouldn’t expect Hickey to admit he was wrong either way. This is a guy who has repeatedly stated that years ago science has proven when life begins although I seem to have missed his citation to support such a statement. Then again he also stated the science is not settled on climate change so maybe he just lives in a different world that I do.

  22. bearcreekbat 2016-01-27 16:47

    Craig, that may be a good point about Hickey, although I can’t recall a single Madville or DFP post relating to abortion that I saw but Hickey missed. But you are right, this could be the first one, or there may be some other reason he has no responded – in fairness he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

    I would tweet him but I have no idea what that is or how to send a tweet, unless this is what you mean?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcmvwFcfWmY

  23. mike from iowa 2016-01-27 17:02

    Hickey is prolly lurking,but doesn’t want to be reminded of his own words. I don’t see how they could have been taken out of context and he sure isn’t the victim in the debate.

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