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a1
On February 4, 2016, notorious anti-choice agitator, self-proclaimed “citizen journalist” and Center for Medical Progress founder Daleiden, wearing a stylish suit, a skinny tie and a confident smile, surrendered to authorities at the Harris County criminal courthouse in Houston, Texas. Shortly afterward, he posted bail, thanked his supporters, particularly the 110,000 and counting who signed a petition demanding his release, and vowed to continue his demagogic smear campaign against Planned Parenthood, still alleging that they illegally traffic in tissue from aborted fetuses for profit.
“They are sending a message that the state of Texas right now is open for business in baby body parts.”
To be sure, nothing could be further from the truth. Texas has gone the farthest to defund and close Planned Parenthood clinics, what with the enaction of HB 2, which bans abortions taking place twenty weeks after fertilization and has precipitated an increase in Medicaid births in that state.
Although the long-debunked propaganda videos produced by Daleiden’s organization accusing Planned Parenthood of profiting from the sale of organs harvested from aborted fetuses prompted Texas’ Lieutenant Moron teabagger Patrick to request a grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood, the jury instead turned their focus toward Daleiden, indicting him and Sandra Merritt, his collaborator on the videos, on felony charges such as tampering with governmental records in the form of making and presenting false driver’s licenses in order to disguise their identities from the interviewees in the videos.
Ironically, Daleiden was also indicted for violating a law prohibiting the purchase and sale of human organs and making offers thusly. Though Daleiden has plead innocent, when convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He also has been served with numerous lawsuits, including a claim from Planned Parenthood for racketeering on his part.
Indeed, Daleiden deserves to be prosecuted, but will 20 years behind bars be enough? It must be taken into account that immediately after the first video was distributed in July 2015, a fire was set outside the front door of the Planned Parenthood facility in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois. The following month, an arson was attempted at a construction site for a new Planned Parenthood clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana. Though both of those fires were contained, the month after the fire in New Orleans was set, a Planned Parenthood building in Pullman, Washington was gutted by an intentional fire. The next month, a fire was set at a Planned Parenthood facility in Thousand Oaks, California, but was extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system before any major damage had occurred.
Most devastating of all, on November 27, 2015, an unhinged 'christian' fanatic named Robert Lewis Dear Jr. went to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado armed with a semiautomatic rifle. He opened fire, killing three and wounding nine. Following a five-hour standoff, Dear was arrested. As he was taken into custody, he remarked, “No more baby parts.”
Because Dear was clearly referencing the videos produced by David Daleiden and distributed by the Center for Medical Progress, there is no doubt that he was radicalized by the propaganda therein. Therefore, David Daleiden should be held just as accountable for the arsons and shooting deaths following the circulation of the deceptive videos, being that he essentially catalyzed these atrocities. The same goes for the wingnut political figures who have helped spread Daleiden’s libelous falsehoods, particularly Fiorina, Cruz and Huckabee.