Texas grand jury probes Planned Parenthood, indicts pro-life videographers instead

Planned Parenthood clinic
(Image credit: Getty Images)

A Texas grand jury investigating allegations against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast decided instead to indict two videographers behind the series of videos taken in 2015 that purported to show the women's health organization illegally profiting off of illegal fetal tissue donations.

The Harris County grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt on charges of tampering with a governmental record, and Daleiden on another charge of purchasing and selling human organs, the Houston Chronicle reports.

"We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast," said Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson. "As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us."

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Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called for the Planned Parenthood probe after the heavily edited videos surfaced. The national organization has argued that the videographers broke laws to secretly obtain footage over eight years.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.