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The great deception behind the anti-Planned Parenthood videos: Column

Center for Medical Progress head pursued single-minded, dishonest campaign that led to his own ruin.

Dawn Laguens

When anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden began his three-year campaign of deception against Planned Parenthood and the millions who rely on us for health care, I’m sure he hoped it would end in criminal charges. He just didn’t realize they would be against him.

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston on Jan. 26, 2016.

Justice has come full circle. A grand jury in Houston has cleared Planned Parenthood of all wrongdoing, and instead indicted Daleiden for criminal offenses, including one felony.

Daleiden didn’t just lie, he broke the law to do so. It’s time for politicians across the country to stop giving him credibility and start treating him like what prosecutors say he is — a criminal.

Daleiden, working in concert with other well-known anti-abortion extremists including Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, who has documented ties to violence, spent nearly three years creating a fake company, creating fake identities (including fake government IDs), obtaining a credit card using a fake name and information, trespassing onto private property and illegally recording conversations without consent with the express goal of finding a way to attack Planned Parenthood and the health care services we provide. When he was not able to find wrongdoing, he manufactured it.

In Houston, Daleiden and his co-conspirator, Sandra Merritt, who also faces a felony charge, stand accused of using their fake identities to gain access to a Planned Parenthood health center. With secret video equipment they attempted to entrap staff into doing something improper or illegal — even offering our staff at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast $1,600 to buy fetal tissue, an offer health center staff rejected. In the end, for all his effort, as the grand jury has now affirmed, he never found a shred of evidence that Houston Planned Parenthood staff did anything wrong.

The grand jury in Houston isn’t the only official body to determine that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong. Officials in twelve states (Kansas, Florida, Ohio, Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and South Dakota) concluded investigations into claims that Planned Parenthood sold or profited from fetal tissue donation and each one has cleared Planned Parenthood of such wrongdoing. Eight other states have declined to even investigate, citing a lack of evidence. Even Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chairs one of the congressional committees that spent months investigating Planned Parenthood and reviewing thousands of pages of information, said "Was there any wrongdoing? I didn't find any."

Planned Parenthood videos testify to ugly truth: David Daleiden

Nonetheless, we’ve seen politicians all across the country who oppose women’s access to health jump on the chance to advance their anti-abortion agenda — often at the expense of low-income women and communities of color.

In Congress and in multiple states — such as Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Kansas  — anti-abortion politicians have used Daleiden's deceptions as justification for bills to strip low-income women on Medicaid of their ability to use Planned Parenthood health centers for preventive health services. Half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid and other federally-funded health care programs. For many, Planned Parenthood is the only health care provider they will see all year.

Governors across the country have cited the videos as their justification for denying health care to thousands of people in their states. In Louisiana, former governor Bobby Jindal tried to restrict more than 5,200 low income patients from accessing care at our centers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's administration has tried to restrict roughly 13,000 individuals from access to preventative care at Planned Parenthood, has ended our contract to administer HIV testing and prevention programs and continues to waste taxpayer resources on “investigating” Planned Parenthood. In Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert used the videos as supposed justification to end state contracts with Planned Parenthood even though the governor’s own Department of Health advised him that doing so would “be a bad idea and put some residents’ health at risk,” Deseret News reported, "including 3,725 people with chlamydia or gonorrhea and their partners (who) would not receive treatment.”

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Beyond public policy, these criminals have stoked inflammatory rhetoric which has created a poisonous environment leading to violent attacks on women’s reproductive health care providers. We’ve seen a nine-fold increase in threats against our health centers since this fraudulent smear campaign began. In November, three individuals were killed outside our Colorado Springs health center, after which the shooter echoed the rhetoric of Daleiden and hostile politicians.

David Daleiden lied and broke the law. He has never hidden his political agenda to outlaw safe and legal abortion and end Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide health care. But as the dust settles, what’s clear is that the real casualty is the millions of women, men and young people who have been targeted as a result. Those who took this bait should take a hard look at the impact of their words and actions. Americans — especially women and trusted medical providers — deserve better than this illegal and unwarranted harassment. It’s high time these individuals and politicians start being held accountable.

Dawn Laguens is Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of ContributorsTo read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.

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