There’s no question that anti-abortion activist David Daleiden surreptitiously recorded healthcare and biomedical services employees across the state of California with the intent of discrediting the healthcare provider, Planned Parenthood — something his heavily edited videos failed to do. There’s also no question that it’s against state law to record confidential conversations without the consent of all the parties involved.
But that doesn’t mean that California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra should have charged Daleiden and his co-conspirator, Susan Merritt, with 15 felony counts — one for each of the 14 people recorded, and a 15th for conspiracy. It’s disturbingly aggressive for Becerra to apply this criminal statute to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be. Planned Parenthood and biomedical company StemExpress, which was also featured in the videos, have another remedy for the harm that was done to them: They can sue Daleiden and Merritt for damages. The state doesn’t need to threaten the pair with prison time.
The videos — recorded in California and elsewhere — were published online nearly two years ago by Daleiden’s organization, the Center for Medical Progress. They caused an uproar, energizing anti-abortion activists and prompting threats against abortion providers. Officials of Planned Parenthood, whose staff members were seen on some of the recordings, denied any wrongdoing and were outraged that the tapes appeared edited to make it sound as if they were selling fetal tissue.
Daleiden describes the effort as journalism, although his methods were decidedly not those employed by respectable reporters. He and Merritt allegedly concocted fake identities and business records to dupe Planned Parenthood officials into taking the pair into their confidence, and misrepresented themselves throughout. Nevertheless, as misguided as they were, their aim was to change people’s views on important and controversial issues — abortion and fetal tissue research.
In similar cases, we have denounced moves to criminalize such behavior, especially in the case of animal welfare investigators who have gone undercover at slaughterhouses and other agricultural businesses to secretly record horrific and illegal abuses of animals. That work, too, is aimed at revealing wrongdoing and changing public policy.
That’s why the state law forbidding recording of conversations should be applied narrowly, and to clear and egregious violations of privacy where the motive is personal gain.
When the LA Times says you might have overreached, you have really overreached!
A Democratic Party proposal to amend the party’s platform to include more progressive language around abortion rights has outraged Democrats who oppose abortion, with some saying the issue has cost Hillary Clinton their votes.
The fallout centers around a proposal to repeal long-standing legislation that limits federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or life-threatening pregnancies — the so-called Hyde Amendment. Some version of this ban has been included in annual federal spending bills since the late 1970s.
The draft platform says Democrats “will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers” and “will continue to oppose — and seek to overturn — federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment.”
Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, said the progressive language on the platform is making the party smaller. “This platform’s language just says (to abortion opponents) you are no longer welcome,” she said. “This has been the general message pro-life Democrats are receiving across the country.”
Day said ever since the Democratic National Committee released its 2016 platform draft July 1, she has gotten calls from Democrats that oppose abortion and say the language is keeping them from voting for Clinton.
Carol Crossed, 72, a retired elementary school professor from Rochester, N.Y., is one of those Democrats.“
They are pro-choice because they don’t want to be infringing their opinion on others,” she said. “Now their platform says if you don’t like abortions, too bad — you are going to pay for it anyway.” – Source: USA Today Anti-abortion Dems outraged by platform change
You have to understand something here; not all Democrats are pro-choice. There are some Christians, who are very devout to their Church. But, because of their background, they are committed Democrats. I know, I used to be one of those kind of people. So, I see where these people are coming from. I mean, these people are put into a very tough position; they are horrified by what the Republican Party is running for President. But, that the same time, they are also horrified at what the Democrats are doing with abortion.
This is what happens, when a political party goes very far to the left, of what it was founded as. The Democratic Party was not founded as a “Progressive Party” in the modern day sense. It was founded as a populist alternative to the Republican Party of old; which favored the businesses tycoons of old.
Needless to say, both political parties have changed greatly as whole. The Republican Party now has many factions; you have the movement grassroots faction, you have the elitist faction; it is a sight to behold. The Democrats, on the other hand; have become this “progressive socialist” party, that seems to be anti-white, anti-police and it is, quite frankly, unnerving to people like myself, who have a keen sense of history to watch a political party like that shift that far to the left.
The Democratic Party and it’s followers, have embraced a strain of progressivism that is intolerance of dissenting views and wishes to prosecute anyone who dares to disagree with them; either by discrediting them or by violence. This is nothing more than left-wing fascism. It is the hallmark traits of communism. I have always said, since about 2007; that the distance between the Democratic Party and the Communist Party and Communist themselves, used to be the width of the Grand Canyon. Now, with the infiltration of the progressive socialists in that political party; that distance is more like a small city block.
I know, I know, I am not supposed to support the guy; for some pretty darned good reasons. But, when he is right, he is right.
You know, broken clock right once a day and all that. 🙂 😉
In response to Greta Van Susteren‘s freak out over some of Erik’s tweets about Wendy Davis and Abortion, Erik wrote the following:
Greta Van Sustern wishes you to know I’m a creepy jerk. She does not know who I am and thinks no one should listen to me. I appreciate her letting someone she’s never heard of who she thinks should not be listened to live rent free in her head.
But I must sincerely thank her.
Wendy Davis believes it is perfectly acceptable to crack open a child’s skull, inject her cranium with saline, vacuum out her brains, then tear her limb from limb unstitching her from her mother’s womb even though a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or a month later she could survive outside the womb. Wendy Davis has staked her career on the right to chop a child to bits, no matter how viable the child is. The media prefers to ignore that to which Wendy Davis staked her career. They’d prefer to focus on her, as Vogue described her, “Barbie looks” and pink sneakers.
In Greta’s diatribe against me, she only used the word “Abortion” once and that was noting me calling Wendy Davis “Abortion Barbie.”
In fact, I appreciate Greta focusing on my tweets and find it instructive she chose specifically to not make it about Wendy Davis. Wendy Davis is a one issue wonder heralded by the press because she is a high priestess of the secular religion’s sacred sacrament — slaughtering children on the altar of Moloch. That Greta Van Susteren is offended by me, thinks me creepy and a jerk, and thinks I should not be listened to is of no harm or consequence to me.
I applaud her willingness to give greater exposure to my tweets because it causes more people to dig into Wendy Davis. And the more they dig the more they find her only issue is abortion. Single issue candidates whose only issue is abortion do not do well.
Spending all this time and energy making it about me, not only reinforces Wendy Davis’s single issue, but distracts the Democrats from the negative attacks they’ll eventually launch, too late, on her Republican opponent.
I have helped define Wendy Davis by a moniker that sticks, describes, and makes her the butt of jokes, while drawing out the shrill hysterics of her supporters. And there’d be more supporters of hers except for her and her supporters declaring open season on people under 40 weeks of age.
Thank you Greta for putting this issue in the spotlight. I will never win the admiration of affection of the secular set, kid killers, and their supporters — and abortion is killing children. If I was getting praise from them, I’d have to reconsider my priorities. There will always be those who stand with Wendy. But there will be plenty, in the din of campaign rhetoric, who hear “Abortion Barbie” and dig into caricature to find the terribly truth of a one note media created wonder. That someone is offended by me, thinks me creepy, or thinks me a jerk is fine with me as it continues to force them to talk about Wendy Davis, defender of the right to tear children apart.
And if you don’t believe me, I would encourage Greta and others to read the comments to her post.
Thank you Greta very much for writing this post and shedding more light on Wendy Davis by making her campaign about me. I do sincerely appreciate the exposure that it might, even indirectly, expose the Cult of Death’s latest champion.
Put me down as someone who happens to agree with all the above. I might not be a huge fan of Erikson. He can be a bit of a jerk, like me. But, when the man is right, he is right. Abortion is a barbaric practice and should be outlawed — on the STATE LEVEL! The quicker, the better if you ask me.
Imitation continues to the be the sincerest form of flattery. Unable to cope with the positive effects of the 40 Days for Life prayer campaign — the closing of abortion centers, conversion of abortion clinic staff to the pro-life perspective, and reduction in abortions — they’re using sacrilegious prayers and fake websites to mock the campaign.
Abortion activists have put up a fake 40 Days for Tacos web site and have manipulated pictures the 40 Days for Life campaign has posted of pro-life advocates across the country by modifying their pictures with fake images of tacos and the mocking slogan “Pray to End Starvation
See this is why I don’t like the pro abortion crowd. Not only are they a bunch of barbaric child murdering fools, but not one of them has an original thought.
The abortionists cannot counter the argument the life is precious, and that the life of an unborn child should be protected and that what they do is barbaric murder; so they resort to mockery.
Its just a textbook example of the fact that the anti Christian left is intellectually bankrupt and they have lost the argument on the subject of abortion. Americans are realizing that abortion is just not a valid solution any longer.
This here is just a textbook example of how the pro-life crowd has won the argument about human life at conception.
LifeNews.com calls it flattery, I prefer the term desperate flailing.
As the House of Representatives gears up for Tuesday’s debate on HR 1797, a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions 20 weeks post fertilization, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued in favor of banning abortions even earlier in pregnancy because, he said, male fetuses that age were already, shall we say, spanking the monkey.
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
I am as pro-life as they come; although, I happen to believe that abortion needs to be decided on the state level and not the federal level. Anyhow, this above is about the stupidest thing that I have ever heard coming (uhhh…huh huh huh…. shut up Beavis) from the mouth of a pro-life supporter.
Let’s defend life, but, please, let’s defend life in a wise way and not like this! 🙄
Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.
Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, testified that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion should be left up to the woman seeking an abortion and her abortion doctor.
“So, um, it is just really hard for me to even ask you this question because I’m almost in disbelief,” said Rep. Jim Boyd. “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”
“We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician,” said Planned Parenthood lobbyist Snow.
Rep. Daniel Davis then asked Snow, “What happens in a situation where a baby is alive, breathing on a table, moving. What do your physicians do at that point?”
“I do not have that information,” Snow replied. “I am not a physician, I am not an abortion provider. So I do not have that information.”
It’s that stuff right there that turns my stomach. Partial-birth abortion is basically legalized homicide of a living, breathing baby, as is regular abortion. Which is why I maintain that life begins at conception and should be protected. This here is one of the issues that I never could get in board with, when it came to the Democratic Party; this and homosexuality.
I try not to get preachy about this subject, as I just do not believe that it is the federal Government’s role to dictate social matters. However, when you get right down to it; abortion is just a ghastly, awful thing to do to another human being; hence my sickness of this subject. I did not even watch the video. Just looking at the text, made my stomach roll. 🙁
I guess that is why I do not vote Democrat any longer, as they actually advocate for this sort of butchery. The very fact that I have to write to defend federalism, in this sort of matter; grieves my soul, because of the moral decadence in this Country. We have gotten that bad, that we actually want to be able to and in some cases are, sucking the brains out of a living breathing, human baby. All in the name of progress, and that my friends is a sickening thing that angers me greatly. 😡
I really dislike having to write things like this; but I cannot be silent on this issue. It, to me, is that important. As I have written in my blog’s long bio; my feelings about pro-life versus pro-choice are basically inline with this organization here.
Having said all of that; I happen to see this on Memeorandum and even as a pro-life independent, who tends to disagree with the far-left and the far-right, I was quite shocked to read it.
Check out this quote from liberal progressive website, Salon.com:
I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice. . . .
Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.
I was speechless; actually, I did utter a few choice words, none of which I wish to publish here!
Well, luckily for me, National Review, which is a solidly Republican publication, has a blog called “The Corner” and a writer there by the name of Katrina Trinko sums it up quite nicely, as to how I feel:
By this same logic, isn’t infanticide also fine and dandy? After all, if we’re talking about autonomy, kids aren’t exactly independent as soon as they are born. No infant can take care of themselves. And even later on in childhood, children rely heavily on the adults in their life to provide shelter, food, and emotional support. What about kids and adults who become disabled in life? What about quadriplegics? They’re not going to be able to take care of themselves. Is it okay if we just off the lot of them? Heck, what about needy friends who seem to be falling apart unless we talk to them regularly and console them? Okay to just shoot a couple of them so that we don’t have the burden? Should we ship the grandparents that spent all their money and are now financially dependent on us to the local executioner?
Yes, if the fetus is a life — and a human being — and not a clump of cells, that makes a huge difference. No one would ask a woman to respect the rights of a clump of cells. But it is valid to ask her, difficult as it is to have an unwanted pregnancy, to realize that the death of the child — the child who was totally innocent and has done nothing except be conceived — is not an appropriate way to handle this.
I have one word: Amen.
I have news for Democrats, especially the progressive part of that party. You are not doing a darned thing for your party or your cause. Because as much as I am for Unions, the middle class and seeing that our poor are taken care of, and not allowed to starve or like here in Michigan; not to freeze….I just cannot and will not, ever, agree with this sort of inhuman philosophy. I am a Christian of 30 year vintage and my Bible says, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Now, I realize that people like Ed Brayton will not like this at all. However, this is just one issue that is not up for debate at all, at least not with me.
Everything else, politics, economics — everything — is up for debate. However, the wholesale slaughter of the unborn is not something that I am willing to concede on, not one iota.
A Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in southern Florida is offering a black Friday discount — including $10 off a visit to the abortion center today.
Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast offered the special, saying, “Visit our West Palm Beach or Kendall Health Center for special after Thanksgiving savings on Friday, November 23rd.”
Sickening, Kill your baby on black Friday!
Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek noticed the Black Friday discount and responded, “Planned Parenthood brings new meaning to the term, “Black Friday,” doesn’t it?”
But yet, we Conservative Christians are the knuckle dragging, backward, heartless types. These bastards have no shame at all. This crap right here, is why I abandoned the Democratic Party. This and the utter disrespect of our Military.
This is a heart warming story that comes with a Hat Tip to The Michigan Report, who just added my blog to their list of bloggers!
9:45a: Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan has given up on its underhanded attempt to open a 17,050 square foot mega-abortion clinic in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a huge pro-life victory.
Moreover, Planned Parenthood is now out at least $1 million and stuck with a boondoggle.
Backstory
In November 2010 Planned Parenthood paid $733,151 cash for the unfinished shell and then tried to wiggle around a deed restriction by misrepresenting its planned use for the structure to adjacent hotel owners, who held the power over the restriction.
Planned Parenthood then preemptively sued the hotel owners after the couple became aware of PP’s duplicity and announced they planned to put up a fight.
As the legal wrangling ensued, the State of Michigan cancelled a $200,000 grant it had earmarked to Planned Parenthood to help finish the structure, after the money wasn’t spent by the end of 2011.
Meanwhile, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, led by Dr. Monica Miller, organized several protests at the site.
In January 2012 Planned Parenthood won Round 1 in court, but the hotel owners, aided by pro-life attorney Jim Carey, appealed.
But on May 18, 2012, Planned Parenthood unexpectedly dropped its lawsuit and agreed to an airtight deed restriction that bans “clinics providing abortion procedures” from using the building.
The new deed restriction was just made public yesterday, the same day Planned Parenthood offered the property up for lease.
Praise The Lord! Anything that works toward the preservation of the unborn is A-OK with me. I might be a good number of things; opinionated, potty-mouthed — But, there is one thing that you can never, ever call me — and that is someone who supports the killing of the unborn. It is wrong, it is immoral and I will blog on the behalf of the lives of the unborn till my dying day.
I just cannot and will not, ever, agree with this sort of inhuman philosophy. I am a Christian of 30 year vintage and my Bible says, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Now, I realize that people like 