PRESS RELEASE
San Francisco, CA — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case of Troy Newman v. Planned Parenthood on Thursday, April 21, 2022.
Troy Newman, who serves as President of Operation Rescue and was a founding board member of the Center for Medical Progress, along with other pro-life activists and journalists, were sued by Planned Parenthood for exposing its appalling baby parts trafficking scheme in 2015 through an undercover investigation – a tactic commonly used by journalists.
However, instead of upholding their Constitutional rights to free speech and a free press, the court found that the pro-lifers had violated the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). That unjust verdict, which led to nearly $17 million in judgments and attorney fees against the pro-lifers, is now the subject of this appeal.
Due to the court’s COVID-19 protocols, the hearing will be available online from San Francisco, California. The arguments can be heard live on April 21 at 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 pm EDT, 12:00 p.m. CDT) at this link: Live Video Streaming of Oral Arguments and Events (uscourts.gov).
The hearing can also be heard live on YouTube.com, then replayed at your convenience at this link: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit – YouTube.
In 2014, the pro-life investigators went under cover to film Planned Parenthood executives, who admitted on camera to selling organs and tissues harvested from the bodies of aborted babies to middle-man organ procurement companies for profit. Former Planned Parenthood Medical Director Deborah Nucatola admitted that abortion procedures were altered to ensure that requested body parts could be harvested intact, which is illegal under Federal Law.
The video exposés led committees in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to conduct their own investigations into Planned Parenthood’s obviously illegal body parts trafficking scheme, which resulted in criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood to the Department of Justice. However, despite the evidence that showed Planned Parenthood broke the law, no charges were ever filed against them.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was once considered the most left-leaning activist court of all in the U.S. However, since President Donald Trump made several conservative appointments to the Ninth Circuit, it has become more ideologically balanced, and may view the pro-life appeal with less hostility.
“Please keep Troy and the other pro-life appellants in your prayers. We want to see the injustice of this wrongful judgment overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. “It is my fervent prayer that one day those involved in Planned Parenthood’s horrific for-profit baby parts trafficking scheme will be held accountable for their alleged crimes in a court of law.”
