It’s hard to believe that it has been over 5 years since the Center for Medical Progress released a series of videos exposing the abortion cartel’s illegal trade in baby body parts. The 5-year anniversary of Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit designed to permanently silence CMP is coming up in January.
Life Legal has been involved in the lawsuit since Day 1 and we are still fighting Planned Parenthood’s outrageous claims, including that CMP’s officers were engaged in racketeering because investigators used fake IDs to gain access to abortion industry conferences.
Most recently, we received a statement of Planned Parenthood’s legal fees incurred thus far in the case—almost $14 million. That, plus another million dollars in costs, is what Planned Parenthood is asking the court to order the defendants to pay – on top of the $2.2 million jury verdict.
During the trial, PP insisted its attorneys were working pro bono. Apparently, their definition of the term is a little different from Webster’s:
pro bo·no /ˌprō ˈbônō/
adverb: (especially with reference to legal work for a client with a low income) without charge. “the attorneys are representing him pro bono”
Similar: free, gratis, unpaid, unrewarded, unsalaried, free of charge, without charge, for nothing, at no cost, without payment,
I want to make it clear that Life Legal has never paid—and will never pay—even one cent to Planned Parenthood for legal fees or anything else.
Not only is Planned Parenthood responsible for the murder of tens of millions of babies, it has facilitated the moral collapse of contemporary civilization by creating the illusion of sex without consequences or boundaries for its young audience. Just how young? PP has a sex ed curriculum designed for kindergartners, thus ensuring a steady stream of abortion clients for generations to come. It is difficult to imagine a single entity that has done more to destroy life and culture than the one founded by Margaret Sanger for the purpose of exterminating “human weeds.”
And that is why we continue to fight Planned Parenthood. Thanks to the CMP videos, we know that behind the heavily-scrubbed façade PP presents to the world and its political puppets, so-called “doctors” tear human beings limb from limb and then sell the mutilated bodies to the highest bidder.
Nevertheless, last year a federal jury handed down judgments, not against Planned Parenthood, but against the self-sacrificing watchmen who had revealed the truth about Planned Parenthood’s operations. One obvious reason for this injustice was the determination of Judge William Orrick to favor Planned Parenthood’s side of the lawsuit. Judge Orrick would not even allow the jury to see the videos that were the subject of the lawsuit.
While the judge did indeed manifest bias against the pro-life defendants as far as the law was concerned, the jury, as trier of fact, arguably did even worse. It was almost as if the jurors paid no attention to the evidence at all. The good news is that these deficiencies present abundant grounds for appeal.
Life Legal is pursuing with all due zeal this avenue as we continue our fight against the nation’s premier abortion mega-corporation. Our Chief Legal Officer Katie Short is preparing an appellate brief that should slam the coffin shut on a case that should have been dismissed four years ago.