The average person may not know the name David Daleiden or his organization, the Center for Medical Progress, but many people know of their heavily edited and misleading “sting videos” over the past several years that claim Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit. Several state and federal investigations have provided no proof for these shocking claims, which promote violence and terrorism against abortion providers. The shooter who killed three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood stated a motivation of his was because of “the selling of baby parts.”

Daleiden and his conspirator Sandra Merritt are now facing 15 felony charges for footage taken surreptitiously at private National Abortion Federation (NAF) meetings. NAF filed a lawsuit in federal court asking to stop any further release of such footage. In July 2015, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick agreed with NAF and issued a temporary restraining order. Then that was bumped to a preliminary injunction in February 2016. This means that the Center for Medical Progress is not allowed to release new footage from those meetings while the case is being decided.

However, that is not what happened. On May 25 the Center for Medical Progress released another video that was taken at a private NAF meeting. The video appears to have been uploaded on May 3 and then made available on May 25. The Center for Medical Progress did not advertise it on their social media pages. Instead they left the video unlisted, meaning it would not show on their public YouTube page and someone could only view this specific video if they were given a specific link. The pro-life movement was quick to jump on it, releasing blog posts, editorials, and tweets promoting and sharing the video.

The same day, Daleiden’s lawyers not only posted the video on their website, but released the names of all 14 John/Jane Does involved in the state criminal complaint against Daleiden and Merritt. The names had been kept under a court seal.

Perhaps the most telling part of the David Daleiden story is how other pro-life organizations have responded to instructions to take down the video. Shortly after the video was first posted and promoted by the many organizations and groups doing it so Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress wouldn’t have to share it directly, YouTube and Twitter removed it from the communications of other pro-life groups. The social media platforms did this after they had communication with those involved in the legal case.

But the pro-life movement continued to share. At the very least, Pro-Life Action League, Life Site News, Life News, Radiance Foundation, Live Action, Lila Rose, Students for Life, Created Equal, Right to Life, Republican Delegate Bob Marshall, and Susan B. Anthony List all shared the video even after they knew the judge had ordered for social media sites to remove it. Often, they would explicitly state that they want to share content the judge had ordered down. Their posts can be seen below.  

During the pro-life hectic coverage, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came out to state Planned Parenthood should be defunded in light of this video that went against the court injunction. This is important to note, as one of the primary purposes of this sting operation has always been to create political ammunition for legislative activity to hurt Planned Parenthood.

Lila Rose, founder of Live Action, went on FOX’s Tucker Carlson show on May 31 to talk about the video. Both Rose and Carlson claimed the judge was biased and censoring the Center for Medical Progress. Carlson went as far to say “if there was ever a time for civil disobedience, it seems like some might think this would be the time,” seemingly encouraging people to share the video that had been released.

The Center for Medical Progress’ social media was largely quiet during this time, though they and David Daleiden did retweet a Susan B. Anthony tweet on May 31 that stated: “It’s precisely because the #PPSellsBabyParts videos are real that there is so much opposition to them – @LilaGraceRose on @TuckerCarlson.” Notably, the man who murdered three people and injured nine others at a Planned Parenthood health center in 2015 after the videos were released used this language.

The last working link of the video that the pro-life movement shared seemed to be on Live Leak, but they too removed the video because of a “possible violation of our terms and service.” Pro-Life Action League continued to share the video on their Facebook page for over a week.

In July, and David Daleiden and his lawyers were held in contempt of court for releasing yet another highly edited, deceptive video – all while Daleiden faced the prospect of being labeled a felon for videos he had already released. Later that month, on July 26^th, the Center for Medical Progress released yet another video. It’s unclear if Daleiden will be held in contempt yet again. No major news outlets have covered it, nor has the judge spoken on the recent video. It is still available to watch on the Center for Medical Progress YouTube channel.

In the beginning of August, Daleiden and the Center for Medical progress filed for the Supreme Court to appeal the gag order placed upon them.

Only time will tell as to what will happen next in the court case, but one thing is clear: the pro-life movement is unified behind David Daleiden and his tactics, regardless of the law.

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For more information about our work in this area, see a related blog post on Reproaction’s direct action targeting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for meeting with David Daleiden, failing to denounce anti-abortion terrorism, and our #BigTentSellOut campaign.