Anti-abortion activists in California charged with 15 felonies

(Image credit: Eric Kayne/Getty Images)

published 29 March 2017

Prosecutors in California say two anti-abortion activists invaded the privacy of 14 medical providers by secretly filming them during meetings.

David Daleiden of Davis, California, and Sandra Merritt of San Jose, who run the Center for Medical Progress in Irvine, California, made undercover films of themselves attempting to purchase fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, prosecutors said, filming 14 people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and El Dorado counties from October 2013 to July 2015. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Daleiden and Merritt made up a fake bioresearch company to use as a ruse in order to set up meetings with the providers, and they have been charged with 15 felonies.

In January 2016, Daleiden and Merritt were indicted on similar charges in Texas. A grand jury had been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after it found that the organization hadn't done anything wrong, the grand jury indicted Daleiden and Merritt; in July, the charges were dropped when prosecutors decided the grand jury overstepped its authority. Daleiden told The Associated Press in an email Tuesday night the charges are "bogus."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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