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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlanned Parenthood Is Going on the Offensive with Massive Lawsuit
Thanks to the Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood spent the latter part of 2015 getting kicked in the teeth. The CMPs highly edited undercover videos, which purported to show Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal organs, created a hurricane of terrible publicity and spurred political attacks across the country. Anti-clinic harassment shot up exponentially. Protestors targeted Planned Parenthood doctors at their homes. Five congressional committees and eighteen states launched investigations. (Ten of those state investigations cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing.) A madman ranting about baby parts murdered three people at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.
Now, Planned Parenthood is going on the offensive. On Thursday afternoon, it announced a massive lawsuit against CMP, charging it with, among other things, violating the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, acta law originally used against the Mafia. The lawsuit seeks restitution for actual losses caused by CMP as well as compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys fees. It hasnt named a dollar figure, but it claims that CMPs actions have cost Planned Parenthood millions. Should Planned Parenthood prevail, it would be a profound economic blow to the anti-abortion movement.
CMP wants to paint the suit as an attack on free speech. In a statement, the group called it a frivolous lawsuit in retaliation for CMPs First Amendment investigative journalism. CMP may indeed have a First Amendment defense to at least some of Planned Parenthoods charges, but the fraud and deception outlined in the lawsuit are not what investigative journalists do, even when they go undercover. In pulling off its anti-abortion coup, the suit alleges, CMP made use of fake drivers licenses and fake credit cards. It stole the identity of one of founder Daniel Deleidens pro-choice high school classmates, Brianna Allen. And of course, it registered a fraudulent tissue procurement company, Biomax.
This case is not going to be resolved any time soon. The last time Planned Parenthood took on the anti-abortion movement like this was in the 1990s, when it sued 12 anti-abortion activists and two anti-abortion groups for creating Wanted posters targeting clinic doctors. That case dragged on for a decade, though it was ultimately resolved in Planned Parenthoods favor in 2006. Whatever happens in Planned Parenthood vs. Center for Medical Progress, Deleiden and his colleagues have already been sentenced to a long, grueling legal battle.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/01/14/planned_parenthood_is_going_on_the_offensive_with_massive_lawsuit.html
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Planned Parenthood Is Going on the Offensive with Massive Lawsuit (Original Post)
MerryBlooms
Jan 2016
OP
Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)1. Free speech is OK except when it is publicized lies.
Thank you for posting this update.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)2. kick
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)3. Good. Shouldn't have
"apologized" when that greasy piece of dark propaganda came out in the first place.
Takket
(21,565 posts)4. Slander and libel are not protected by the 1A
in fact, they are quite illegal.
Go get 'em PP
niyad
(113,302 posts)5. I am just sorry that PP has to spend time, and energy, and resources kicking cmp in the ass,
when PP has such important work to do. yet, this lawsuit must be done.