Life Legal filed an appellate brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in the case of Planned Parenthood Federation of America et al. v. David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). At issue is whether Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit against Daleiden, seeking to punish him for exposing the abortion giant’s role in the baby body parts trade, should be dismissed under California’s anti-SLAPP law.
A SLAPP suit, or “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” is a lawsuit that seeks to chill the rights of free speech and petition on matters of public significance. There is hardly a matter more significant to the public than the issue of abortion. Yet Planned Parenthood wants to ensure that David—and others—are scared into silence, now and in the future, by threatening David with liability running to the tens of millions of dollars in damages and attorney fees.
Planned Parenthood even has the audacity to claim that David and CMP should pay for the costs Planned Parenthood has incurred in responding to federal and state investigations into its baby parts trafficking investigation that have resulted in criminal referrals against Planned Parenthood and its accomplices.
Life Legal filed an “anti-SLAPP” motion, which normally would require Planned Parenthood to provide some evidence of its claims against David before dragging him and his co-defendants through expensive litigation. Yet the District Court in this case failed to place that burden on the nation’s largest abortion provider. On September 30, the lower court denied our motion and allowed the case to proceed, setting the stage for this appeal.
“Planned Parenthood is outraged that its business model of killing babies and selling their parts for profit has been exposed for all the world to see,” said Life Legal Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “The abortion cartel’s bottom line has suffered. And now it faces the very real threat of being defunded by the federal government, which would eliminate nearly half of its operating budget in one fell swoop.”
Please pray that our appeal is successful and that Planned Parenthood’s outrageous assault on the right of David and all profilers to expose its misdeeds is defeated!