For Immediate Release
Washington, DC – In an act of injustice and failure to protect independent citizen journalism, the United States Supreme Court refused to provide certiorari in several related appeals filed by pro-life activists, including Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. This decision ends the defendants’ efforts to obtain justice after Planned Parenthood’s use of lawfare resulted in a judgment and fees totaling more than $18 million.
The activists were wrongly convicted in a San Francisco Federal Court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) after Planned Parenthood sued them for the 2015 release of a series of undercover videos detailing the Abortion Cartel’s secret participation in what appeared to be illegal profit-taking from the trafficking of tissue and organs harvested from the bodies of babies aborted at Planned Parenthood facilities.
Troy Newman, the lead defendant in Newman vs. Planned Parenthood, said, “This injustice is years in the making. Planned Parenthood has gamed the system to cover up their crimes and punish those of us who came forward to expose the heinous nature of what really happens behind the closed doors of America’s Abortion Cartel. However, in the end, Planned Parenthood has lost, because no matter what is levied against me, I will never stop speaking the truth to the American people about the barbarity of abortion and corruption that exists within the abortion industry, the current government, and the legal system that aids, abets, and protects the vicious shedding of innocent blood.”
The undercover video series showed clear evidence of Planned Parenthood officials admitting they harvested and sold aborted baby remains. The videos also contained eyewitness claims that many babies survived abortions, only to have their organs cut from their bodies as they struggled for life. This was done for the purpose of supplying the freshest samples, which could obtain the highest price from middle-man procurement companies and so-called “research” labs world-wide.
However, despite the evidence and two Congressional investigations that both resulted in Planned Parenthood’s criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice, the corrupt FBI refused to investigate, and the DOJ declined to prosecute.
During Newman’s trial, a federal judge’s refusal to allow key evidence unduly influenced the trial’s outcome. An “unpublished” decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals essentially guaranteed that the Supreme Court would not take the case.
Yesterday’s decision permanently saddles Newman and the other defendants with a judgment of millions of dollars now owed to Planned Parenthood. RICO does not allow the defendants to discharge the judgment in bankruptcy, so they will be forever in debt, unable to own any personal property.
“In the end, the real losers are the women and babies who have been criminally exploited by the Abortion Cartel, the First Amendment that is meant to provide protections to journalistic free speech, and the American people who have been lied to and prevented from hearing a narrative that is critical of the pro-abortion ideology and actions supported by corrupt forces within our government,” said Newman.
