AUSTIN, Texas — A Houston grand jury that was investigating accusations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood on Monday instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who recorded covert videos of the organization’s employees.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said David Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress, faces a felony charge of tampering with a government record and a misdemeanor count related to buying human tissue.
Sandra Merritt, one of Daleiden’s employees, also was indicted on a charge of tampering with a government record.
The grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast of all wrongdoing.
“We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” Anderson said in a statement. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”
Gov. Greg Abbott said the inspector general of the state’s Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas attorney general’s office would continue to investigate Planned Parenthood’s actions.
“The state of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue,” Abbott said in a statement.
The indictment did not reveal how the Center for Medical Progress manipulated government documents. But this month, Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress, asserting the group broke several federal laws in its campaign to defame the health care centers with mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording and trespassing.
Last year, Daleiden’s group secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the transfer of tissue from aborted fetuses to research laboratories. The organization apologized for the candid language used by staffers but insisted it did not break any laws.
Peddling human fetal tissue is illegal in the United States. Donating the tissue, however, is legal with a woman’s consent.
Daleiden, who went undercover to slip into clinics and shoot the footage, claimed Planned Parenthood sold the tissue for profit — a charge the organization denied. Other activists posed as biotech employees to build relationships with Planned Parenthood employees.
“These anti-abortion extremists spent three years creating a fake company, creating fake identities, lying and breaking the law,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “When they couldn’t find any improper or illegal activity, they made it up.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
ordered the investigation after an undercover video shot inside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston was released.
The videos reignited a long-standing debate over the use of fetal tissue collected through abortions, fueled efforts seeking to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, re-energized arguments over whether public money should support Planned Parenthood and became the subject of a Republican-led investigation on Capitol Hill.
In November, authorities said Robert Dear, the gunman who admitted killing three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, explained his actions with the phrase, “No more baby parts.”
Advocates applauded the grand jury decision.
“As we’ve known all along, David Daleiden is the one who broke the law, not abortion providers,” Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said in a statement.
