Harris Grand Jury Indicts Pair Behind Planned Parenthood Videos

By Brian M. Rosenthal and Brian Roger

Houston Chronicle 

A Harris County grand jury investigating allegations that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston illegally sold the tissue of aborted fetuses has cleared the organization of wrongdoing and instead indicted two anti-abortion activists behind the undercover videos that sparked the probe.

Secret videographers David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were both indicted on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. Daleiden received an additional misdemeanor indictment under the law prohibiting the purchase and sale of human organs.


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State to Drop Planned Parenthood from Medicaid Over Videos

By Brian M. Rosenthal
Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN -- Texas health officials have decided to cut Planned Parenthood out of the state Medicaid program entirely because of issues revealed in an undercover video, the Houston Chronicle has learned.

In a letter to be sent to state Planned Parenthood affiliates on Monday, officials say they made their decision because a video released earlier this summer showed that the women's health organization alters its abortion process to preserve fetal organs and allows private citizens into its lab wearing only gloves.

The private citizens allowed into the lab were the secret videographers, who were actors posing as people trying to buy fetal tissue for medical research.

"The State has determined that you and your Planned Parenthood affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner," writes Stuart Bowen, the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

The video was part of a series released by the anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress which have caused a nationwide firestorm and incited at least four separate investigations in Texas. The health commission inquiry was ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott.

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