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Planned Parenthood Sues To Block Info About Baby Part Sales

Planned Parenthood sued the University of Washington and David Daleiden to prevent release of public documents about taxpayer-funded baby parts harvesting.

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Planned Parenthood is suing the University of Washington to keep it from revealing information about its participation in the purchase and sale of body parts from aborted babies.

The federal class-action lawsuit to suppress the information was filed by employees engaged in research on aborted babies and claimed to represent employees of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, Cedar River Clinics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and others affiliated with the University of Washington’s research laboratory that uses aborted baby parts.

Jane Does 1-10 v. University of Washington names the university along with David Daleiden, the journalist seeking the information, as part of his investigation into those trafficking body parts from aborted children. Daleiden’s expose of Planned Parenthood’s practice of taking money for the parts procured during abortion led Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion corporation, to claim it would stop taking money for body parts last year. The University of Washington is taxpayer funded and planned to release the information about its participation in the fetal body part market on August 5.

Daleiden requested the information in February regarding the public university’s relationship to Planned Parenthood. The suit also targets Zachary Freeman, director of communications for the Family Policy Institute of Washington, who requested similar information. No other journalists from Washington’s media outlets or from the national media were named in the suit, and there is no evidence they were interested in finding out substantive information about Planned Parenthood’s relationship with the university as it relates to fetal body parts over the course of the last year.

Planned Parenthood has at times claimed the videos exposing fetal body part sales were a hoax, but has vigorously fought all attempts to bring light to the practice, stifling congressional and state investigations and suing Daleiden in multiple jurisdictions. Planned Parenthood and its allies trumpeted an indictment against Daleiden for his undercover journalism in Texas but a judge there just dismissed all charges against him.

In a statement, Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress decried Planned Parenthood’s attempts to keep the public from learning more about the “taxpayer-sponsored, NIH-funded fetal harvesting service at the University of Washington.” The Center for Medical Progress noted that Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards hailed its partnership with the University of Washington last October and claimed it was a model for profit-neutral baby parts harvesting.

“Over the past year, the American people have watched as Planned Parenthood has scrambled to distract the public and public authorities from the scandal—even while Planned Parenthood has failed the answer the most basic questions about their baby body parts program. What is Planned Parenthood hiding about their new model baby parts program at the University of Washington? The American people, whose tax dollars make this entire barbaric industry possible, deserve to know the truth,” the statement added.

Daleiden requested “an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of all documents that relate to the purchase, transfer, or procurement of human fetal tissues, human fetal organs, and/or human fetal cell products at the University of Washington Birth Defects Research Laboratory from 2010 to present” in February under the Washington Public Records Act. His public records request sought communications between the University of Washington and various entities engaged in body part transfers, the purchase orders associated with them, and various other information that could help the public understand how the transfer and sale of aborted baby parts is handled in Washington state.

The university notified those whose information would be included in the records of its plan to release the information and told them to seek an injunction if they didn’t want their information shared. Plaintiffs asked the journalists seeking the information if they would be open to receiving the information with personal information redacted. The journalists agreed to consider. The lawsuit was filed August 4. Plaintiff attorneys include longtime abortion legal advocates Vanessa Soriano Power, Jill Bowman, and Janet S. Chung.