A Houston grand jury investigating undercover videos of Planned Parenthood issued a surprise decision Monday, indicting the founder of the organization behind the footage and another anti-abortion activist.
David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, and Sandra Merritt were both indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. Daleiden was also indicted on a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs.
The grand jury didn’t recommend any charges against Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States.
“We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” Devon Anderson, the Harris County District Attorney, said in a statement. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us.”
Additional details from the district attorney’s office weren’t immediately available to the public. For its part, the CMP said it conducted itself in a manner consistent with investigative journalism practices.
“We respect the processes of the Harris County District Attorney, and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well,” the organization added. “Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that a separate state investigation of the videos will continue.
The grand jury probe began in August after the Center for Medical Progress released a recording of a Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast official discussing the pricing of tissue and fetal cadavers to undercover activists. In response, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick directed Anderson, the district attorney, to open a criminal inquiry.
The investigation has been just one response to CMP’s undertakings among many, including efforts to defund Planned Parenthood in legislatures across the country and frequent comment among the 2016 presidential candidates.
“I’m disturbed that while Planned Parenthood, who are the ones that were actually selling off these parts, were found having done nothing wrong, the people who tried to expose them are the ones that are now facing criminal charges,” Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN Monday evening.
Other GOP contenders reacted to the news, including former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who told radio host Hugh Hewitt that the opposition to Planned Parenthood’s practices is a fight over the nation’s character.
“We know for a fact that because of Planned Parenthood’s own announcement that they would no longer accept payments for what they call ‘fetal tissue,’ and they were in fact trafficking in baby body parts. So guess what? I’m not going to sit down and be quiet,” Fiorina said. “I will not sit down and be quiet, I know the value of life, we know what’s going on, and I will continue to stand for the character of this nation.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also weighed in, tweeting that it’s “a sick day in America when our [government] punishes those who expose evil w/ a cellphone—yet accommodates those who perform it with a scalpel.”
Texas grand jury investigations have entered the presidential conversation before during this election. In August 2014, former White House hopeful and Gov. Rick Perry was indicted by a Travis County panel in connection to his request that the district attorney there resign over a drunken driving conviction or face a veto of public money for her office. David Axelrod and Alan Dershowitz have both looked upon the grand jury’s actions disapprovingly.
