By Cheryl Sullenger
Orange County, CA – Stating that his aim is to take the profit out of selling aborted baby body parts, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced that a lawsuit had been filed against DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics, which his office say made big money from aborted baby remains obtained from Planned Parenthood abortion facilities.
The Yorba Linda-based companies are accused of earning more than $1.5 million in revenue from 2013 to 2015 that was directly related to the sale of aborted baby remains. This figure does not count additional profit made from mark-ups on the cost of shipping and handling the tissue.
Rackauckas is seeking $1.6 million fine from DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics and an injunction preventing the future sale of fetal tissue at a profit.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, chair of the House Select Panel on Infant Lives, was tasked with investigating the illegal sale of aborted baby remains for profit as the result of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress last year that exposed how tissue from aborted babies created a profit stream for Planned Parenthood and middle-man tissue procurement organizations.
Blackburn said yesterday in a press statement concerning the suit that from 2008 through 2015, DaVinci Biosciences obtained its fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC). She issued the following statement:
For nearly a year, critics of this Panel’s fact-finding investigation have repeatedly called for it to be disbanded, saying there’s nothing to see here. They claimed there was no wrongdoing in the fetal tissue industry. This claim was soundly debunked with a lawsuit filed by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, which reveals that officials at the state and local level share our concern that some fetal tissue middlemen may have broken the law.
Based on the evidence uncovered during our Panel’s investigation, we have been deeply troubled about the relationship between DaVinci and PPOSBC, which appears to have created a market for the donation of human fetal tissue. As a result, our Panel is continuing to look at connections between Planned Parenthood and tissue procurement companies. The lawsuit filed by the Orange County DA shows that there is also broad support at the state and local level to uncover the truth about what is going on in the abortion and fetal tissue industries.
“This was exciting news that shows real progress is being made on investigations launched in reaction to the undercover Planned Parenthood videos,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue who served as a founding board member for the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). “Planned Parenthood’s deceptive public relations campaign denying involvement is as phony as a three dollar bill, and we look forward to Planned Parenthood and all their baby-trafficking cohorts being brought to justice in the near future.”
Newman and CMP lead investigator David Daleiden are fighting two Federal lawsuits filed by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, which are seeking to block the release of additional CMP investigative materials.
