…And Republicans Are Proving It
By Samuel Warde
Republican governors, attorney generals and state legislators
have been calling for investigations since last July when highly edited and misleading viral videos were released by a pro-choice
organization.
This Monday, a
grand jury in Houston investigating accusations of misconduct against Planned
Parenthood cleared the organization of any wrong-doing and “has decided that after reviewing the evidence, the
real criminals in this case are the anti-abortion activists who made the series
of bogus videos attacking Planned Parenthood over the summer.“
The two activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, are now
facing two charges of tampering with a governmental record, which is a second
degree felony carrying up to a 20 year prison sentence, and the purchase and
sale of human organs, which is a misdemeanor.
And this is only the latest setback for Republicans out to
shutter the doors to Planned Parenthood clinics in their respective states.
As The Los
Angeles Times reported, “Officials in 11
states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing after investigating claims
that they profited from fetal tissue donation, officials said, including
Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Washington.”
For all intents and purposes, eight other states cleared
Planned Parenthood by declining to investigate, citing a lack of evidence of
any misconduct. Those states include: California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho,
Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia.
In addition to the state-level investigations, last August
several articles were published in the New England Journal of Medicine by three medical doctors and a juris doctor who contributed their expert
views and perspectives about fetal tissue research and the Planned
Parenthood organization.
In all instances, Planned Parenthood was not only cleared of any criminal conduct or wrong-doing – the journal also highly praised the
work of Planned Parenthood.
Samuel Warde is a writer, social and
political activist, and all-around troublemaker.