As California's attorney general, Vice President Kamala Harris used the power of the law to advance the interests of the abortion industry, but pro-lifers and conservatives worry that will reflect the priorities of her administration.
recently release video The article was written by a citizen journalist who went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood for its involvement in the trafficking of fetal tissue, and was subsequently investigated by then-California Attorney General Harris. Rekindled As prosecutions of pro-life activists increase under the Biden administration, Harris' past actions have heightened concerns that the administration will use the Justice Department to take a more aggressive stance in targeting political opponents.
David Daleiden, a journalist who was targeted by Harris for her undercover video of Planned Parenthood, said he doesn't think it's a coincidence that prosecutions of pro-life activists have increased since she became vice president. “I think this is a pattern for Harris,” he said.
“Her record shows that she is hell-bent on using the power of government at all levels of government to suppress the First Amendment speech rights of people with whom she disagrees,” Daleiden told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And even more seriously, she does so on behalf of very powerful special interests, like her sponsors, the abortion industry.”
When Harris was attorney general, her office launched an investigation into Daleiden, searching his apartment and investigators seized his computers and other records. According to According to the Los Angeles Times, Xavier Becerra, who replaced Harris as Secretary of Health and Human Services, position After being elected to the Senate in 2017, he became Attorney General and then Charged Daleiden and Sandra Merritt are accused of using false identification and shell companies to secretly record conversations with Planned Parenthood employees.
Daleiden said the law he was charged with “has never been applied to an undercover journalist before.”
“She used that law selectively as a weapon against me,” he said.
Daleiden's footage was suppressed for years, but was later included in a July transcript of Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia's release Congress subpoenaed the unedited footage. valid We want CMP to re-release the video.
“I'm like, 'Yeah, you have the perfect leg!' But I think if other people heard that, they'd think you were a really evil person,” said Tram Nguyen, vice president of abortion access at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. video Daleiden published Thursday Recorded At the National Abortion Federation's 2015 Business Fair. (Related: Tim Walz administration led effort to eliminate most age requirements for genital surgery for children)
Planned Parenthood has long denied selling fetal tissue, Assert Daleiden's video was “misleadingly edited.” letterPlanned Parenthood President Cecil Richards announced that the organization will no longer accept reimbursements for costs associated with tissue donations.
Planned Parenthood did not respond to a request for comment about the video.
Daleiden said Harris has not responded to questions about the contents of the video, and she has not given interviews or held a press conference since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
“Commenting on this or acknowledging this is completely uncharted territory for her,” he said.
🧵2016, Kamala Harris They confiscated dozens of hours of my unreleased undercover tapes.
Now that this evidence has come to light for the first time, Kamala Harris As California's Attorney General, he led a cover-up of late-term abortion crimes.pic.twitter.com/3mY8PyJKTk
— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) August 9, 2024
As California Attorney General, Harris also Supported And he defended the law, but in the end Rejected Supreme Court decision on First Amendment grounds requiring pro-life pregnancy centers in California to advertise abortion services.
The Supreme Court ruled that the law “imposes unduly burdensome disclosure requirements that stifle protected speech.”
“Dangerous to First Amendment rights”
“The Biden-Harris Administration's Ministry of Injustice has repeatedly been weaponized against pro-lifers and political opponents,” Rep. Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, told DCNF, adding that Harris' prosecution of Daleiden “should send chills down the spine of every American.”
“It would be a mistake to think that she wouldn't do it again from the White House,” Good said.
Of all lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Access to Health Care (FACE) Act from 1994 to 2024, nearly 97% of the 205 cases were against pro-life activists, according to data previously provided to The Daily Caller by the office of Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.
Moreover, a quarter of the FACE Act cases were filed under the Biden administration: of the 55 lawsuits filed under Biden, only five involved attacks on pregnancy centers. (Related: While Biden Justice Department jails pro-lifers, hundreds of pro-abortion violence cases go uncharged)
face Activities It prohibits the use of force or physical interference to prevent individuals, including pro-life pregnancy centers, from “obtaining or providing reproductive health services,” and prohibits intentional damage to the property of reproductive health facilities.
In 2022, the home of pro-life activist and father Mark Hack was searched by armed FBI agents while his children were home, and the Department of Justice charged him with assaulting an abortion clinic volunteer, but he was ultimately acquitted.
Lauren Handy, activist director for Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), Sentenced She was convicted last year under the FACE Act along with several other pro-life activists for blocking access to abortion clinics in Washington, D.C., in 2020 and was sentenced to 57 months in prison in May.
“Kamala Harris is personally responsible for defending the murder of young children in our country and the Department of Justice is deeply complicit,” PAAU founder Teresa Vukovinac, who announced her candidacy to challenge President Joe Biden in last year's Democratic primary, told DCNF.
In March 2022, PAAU discovered five late-term aborted babies believed to have been murdered during partial-birth abortions among the remains of 115 aborted babies stored in a toxic waste bin at the Washington Surgical Center in Washington, D.C. The D.C. government agreed to a request from Republican lawmakers to preserve the bodies for further examination in February, the same year the Department of Justice reportedly approved the disposal of the bodies.
“The willingness of a human being to abandon civility and place their body between a murderer and our babies will always be a threat to a regime that has risen to power through genocide,” Bukovinac said. “The only real defense against a fascist like Harris is nonviolent resistance. Therefore, FACE must be abolished and every peaceful effort should be made to remove her from power.”
Harris' vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also has a radical pro-abortion record: He signed a bill banning abortion into law in 2023. declare Abortion is a “fundamental right” of the state, Signed The bill Deleted The obligation to take measures to “protect the life and health” of infants born alive after a failed abortion.
Harris' willingness to prosecute pro-life activists points to broader concerns.
“I think Kamala Harris as a public official is a huge danger to First Amendment rights and civil rights in this country,” Daleiden told DCNF.
The Justice Department has been widely criticized, including for efforts to politicize it under the Biden-Harris administration. Hurry Federal indictments against former President Donald Trump ahead of the election. (Related article: Annotating Garland's Washington Post op-ed with facts)
In June, the Department of Justice indicted Dr. Eisan Haim, a Texas surgeon who blew the whistle on Texas Children's Hospital after he discovered the hospital was still performing sex-reassignment surgeries on minors despite the hospital claiming it had stopped doing so, for allegedly violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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