PP-SanJose
By Cheryl Sullenger
Sacramento, CA — In a hefty blow to the First Amendment, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed state legislation last Friday that will make it illegal to distribute recordings of conversations with Planned Parenthood other abortion businesses in California.
This is in direct response to undercover videos released last year by the Center for Medical Progress that exposed Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the price of aborted baby body parts even though it is illegal to sell aborted baby tissue for profit.
Beginning in January 2017, AB 1671 will make it a crime to publish such recordings, even if they show evidence of a crime, as the Center for Medical Progress videos so obviously do.
“Who would have ever thought that a law would be passed anywhere in America making it illegal to expose evidence of criminal conduct? This is so unconstitutional that it’s hard to believe that a state legislature and governor all agreed to it,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who served as a founding member of the Center for Medical Progress. “This just goes to show how much influence Planned Parenthood wields over the Democratic Party, especially in California. If Hillary Clinton, who is endorsed by Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, becomes president, attacks like this on pro-life investigators and free speech will only get worse.”
Newman has been sued by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation in a California Federal Court to keep any additional recordings from being made public.
It appears that the California Democrats will stoop to any lengths to stop pro-life investigators from documenting any other illegal or unsafe activity that may involve abortionists – including attacking First Amendment freedoms that have protected Free Speech and a Free Press for over two centuries.
“California’s new anti-recording law was passed by a Democrat-controlled legislature for the sole purpose of insulating Planned Parenthood from any consequences of their own words and actions,” said Newman. “The videos now in the public domain show Planned Parenthood executives acting like ghouls attempting to squeeze every last time out of the remains of babies they abort. Exposing that appalling conduct was a public service. It is only because of Planned Parenthood’s vast political influence within the Democratic Party that its executives aren’t in prison right now.”
The fallout from the CMP videos has been powerful. In addition to several states taking immediate action to block tax-funding to the abortion giant, the U.S. House charged the Select Panel on Infant Lives with the investigation of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the illegal trafficking of aborted baby remains.
Don’t believe it when the news media says no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood has been uncovered.
Already the Select Panel has issued two letters to the Department of Health and Human Services recommending prosecution of Planned Parenthood and Stem Express, an organ procurement company that contracted with Planned Parenthood for aborted baby remains for HIPAA privacy violations and fraud. The Select Panel also expressed concern that coercion may have been involved in obtaining consents from vulnerable pregnant women for the donation of their aborted babies’ remains.
The abortion businesses at issue in Rep. Blackburn’s letters are all located in California. They include Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in San Jose and Concord.
This is strong motivation for the Planned Parenthood supporters within the California Democratic Party — undoubtedly recipients of Planned Parenthood campaign cash — to attack pro-life investigators.
Nearly 80 pages of documents were submitted as evidence against Planned Parenthood and Stem Express by the Select Panel. An independent forensic analysis that confirmed the CMP videos are authentic and present the speakers’ conversations in an accurate manner.
Despite this, liberal media outlets continue to portray the CMP videos as “deceptive.” Such untruthful reporting no doubt provided fodder for Democrats in the passage of California’s clearly unconstitutional anti-recording law.
“The CMP recordings and subsequent House investigative documents are solid proof that Planned Parenthood and Stem Express engaged in a business arrangement that broke the law,” said Newman. “Now the Planned Parenthood’s friends in the Democratic Party have found a way to make the whistle-blowers the criminals by trashing our precious First Amendment freedoms. We pray that this law will not be allowed to stand.”