After an Obama-appointed judge with numerous explicit ties to Planned Parenthood in San Francisco last week held Center for Medical Progress co-founder David Daleiden in contempt of court and ordered him and his legal team to pay a $137,000 fine, U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said he found a troubling irony in that decision.
“The left has turned the courts and the legal system into a blunt instrument to punish political opponents, and that should strike fear into all of us,” he said. “David Daleiden is an American hero for revealing the dark, evil secrets of the abortion industry. What he is undergoing in the Texas and California court systems can be called nothing other than persecution—the undercover tactics he used have been utilized by reporters and investigators for decades. This is an attempt to destroy the message by burying the messenger.
“Ironic, is it not, that we are willing to put a man in jail doing something virtuous like telling the truth, but we reward child murderers with federal subsidies.
“The public has a right to the extremely enlightening information in the videos—and David Daleiden has a right under the First Amendment to share the truth about Planned Parenthood and its affiliates.”
The Center for Medical Progress and Daleiden became famous in 2015 for releasing damaging videos revealing Planned Parenthood executives negotiating prices for aborted baby parts. Since then, the abortion industry has been targeting him through court orders and criminal charges in an attempt to hide the content of the videos he has produced. {eoa}
