(AP/Pat Sullivan)The two antiabortion activists who mounted a hidden-camera investigation against Planned Parenthood officials have been charged with 15 felonies for violating the privacy of health-care providers by recording confidential information without their consent. The court fight over the secretly recorded videos began in April 2015, when Daleiden and Merritt made site visits at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast headquarters, using fake names to portray themselves as a company interested in connecting Planned Parenthood health centers with research studies. The two antiabortion activists were actually affiliated with Daleiden’s little-known antiabortion nonprofit, the Center for Medical Progress. [‘Not a scintilla of evidence’ of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood: Federal judge blocks Texas defunding effort]While touring the facilities, they recorded a series of undercover videos, supposedly showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing plans to sell aborted human fetal tissue and body parts. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks, in Austin, wrote that Texas officials lacked “even a scintilla of evidence” to conclude that Planned Parenthood committed wrongdoing and warranted termination from the Medicaid program.

Source: Washington Post March 29, 2017 02:16 UTC