A pro-abortion judge overseeing lawsuits by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation against the undercover journalists who exposed the abortion industry’s profiting from baby body parts is facing a dilemma.
He’s now been confronted with testimony from an experienced abortionist that conflicts with his rulings.
District Judge William Orrick, a Barack Obama appointee who bundled donations for Obama, has been hearing the cases against David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress.
Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, recorded abortion executives talking about the money they made from selling the body parts. One argued for higher prices because she wanted to purchase a Lamborghini.
The profiting is banned under federal law, but Orrick has ruled in favor of the abortionists at every step.
Now, however, Daleiden has obtained the testimony of Dr. Forrest Smith, an OB-GYN in California who said he’s performed at least 50,000 abortions, reports Madeline Osburn at The Federalist.
Smith took the witness stand in 2019 at the trial of Planned Parenthood’s criminal case against Daleiden, testifying “there’s no question” some of the induced abortions discussed in the videos “were live births.”
Daleiden said: “Here’s a 50-year experienced abortion doctor who’s worked at Planned Parenthood before, who is saying ‘Actually, your Honor, as a professional in this area, I’m telling you this is extremely wrong, extremely unprofessional, extremely unethical, and extremely illegal.'”
Orrick had justified blocking Daleiden’s release of videos he took at a National Abortion Federation conference by saying he reviewed them and found “no evidence of actual criminal wrongdoing.”
The judge was able to block Smith’s testimony in the Planned Parenthood lawsuit against Daleiden because the abortion industry giant claimed fraud, trespass, unlawful recording and breach of contract, but not defamation.
“Planned Parenthood strategically avoided bringing up the issue of whether the content of the videos was false or defamatory. They never denied the truth of what was revealed in those undercover videos,” The Federalist explained.
But NAF is going the opposite direction, contending the videos should be banned permanently because they would “harm” the organization’s reputation.
The issue for Orrick is NAF’s demand for a permanent injunction.
Because NAF has put the issue of what the videos show at the center of their case, Orrick won’t be able to keep Smith’s report out, The Federalist explained.
“The problem for Orrick is that Smith’s expert report directly contradicts what he said in his 2016 preliminary gag order, that he found no ‘criminal wrongdoing.'”
Smith also has noted that PPFA abortionists “violated standards in obtaining consent from women whose fetal tissue was donated, in the techniques they used to collect the fetus body parts, in the way the clinics accepted payment for the ‘donations,’ and that their procedure resulted in infants being born alive.”
Daleiden asked: “Is [Orrick] going to say that he, Judge Orrick, knows better than the abortion doctor, which would show he’s on the side of Planned Parenthood, or is he going to start to liberate some of this footage, which may have consequences for his career as an Obama-appointed judge?”
The Federalist noted Orrick was nominated by Obama after serving as a major donor to and bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.
“Both Orrick and his wife are longtime donors to San Francisco’s Good Samaritan Family Resource Center (GSFRC), where Orrick was a board member and helped fund and open a Planned Parenthood clinic on its site. That clinic sold fetal tissue to StemExpress, a for-profit wholesaler exposed by CMP’s videos and reporting,” The Federalist reported.
“Orrick’s wife is also an outspoken abortion advocate on social media, ‘liking’ pro-abortion groups on Facebook and even ‘liking’ posts calling CMP and Daleiden’s videos ‘domestic terrorism.’ Suffice it to say, Orrick is not an impartial judge on abortion. Despite attempts by Daledien and CMP to have Orrick removed from their cases, Orrick has refused to step down or even disclose his relationship with the Planned Parenthood clinic.”
One of the videos in dispute was briefly available online before Orrick ordered it taken down and threatened anyone with a copy. Even news outlets not party to the case were barred from posting it.
WND, however, transcribed for its readers the comments of the abortion executives.
Lisa Harris, medical director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan, says in the video: “Our stories don’t really have a place in a lot of pro-choice discourse and rhetoric, right? The heads that get stuck that we can’t get out. The hemorrhages that we manage.”
Susan Robinson of Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte in San Jose, California: “The fetus is a tough little object and taking it apart, I mean taking it apart, on day one is very difficult.’
Talcott Camp, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Health Freedom Project: “I’m like oh my god! I get it! When the skull is broken, that’s really sharp. I get it, I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium.”
Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America: “You know, sometimes she’ll tell me she wants brain, and we’ll, you know, leave the calvarium in ’til last, and then try to basically take it, or actually, you know, catch everything, and even keep it separate from the rest of the tissue so it doesn’t get lost.”
Uta Landy, founder of the Consortium of Abortion providers for Planned Parenthood: “An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross.”
Her comment was followed by raucous laughter from the abortionists at the meeting of the National Abortion Federation, where the undercover video was taken.
Leslie Drummond of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: “I get a lot of ‘oohs’ and aahs’ from Stemex(press) you know, they’re wanting livers. Last week I was in Sacramento and she said, ‘I need four intact limbs’ and I said ‘you want what?'”
Paul Blumenthal, Planned Parenthood of Maryland: “I know Planned Parenthood sells a lot of stuff (fetal organs) to people.”
Deb Vanderhei of the Consortium of Abortion Providers: “But the truth is that some might want to do it for, to increase their revenues. And we can’t ‘stop them.”
Daleiden later turned the tables on Planned Parenthood, suing them for defamation.
His lawyer said Daleiden “is taking the abortion giant to task for telling the media that he and The Center for Medical Progress ‘manufacture[d]’ and ‘created’ a ‘false smear campaign’ by releasing videos showing clear evidence of high-level Planned Parenthood officials candidly discussing the PPFA network’s participation in illegal harvesting and selling of aborted fetal body parts.”
The legal team contends PPFA’s statements “are provably false and betray their own admissions about the veracity of the videos.”
Here are two of the videos released by CMP:
See a CMP video about Planned Parenthood skirting federal law:
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
