The
U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to overturn a gag order issued by a
Planned Parenthood-linked judge preventing David Daleiden of the Center
for Medical Progress from releasing videoed conversations he had with
abortionists at a National Abortion Federation event.
Among other reasons, Daleiden contends the order is a “novel inroad” on
First Amendment speech rights.
The video in question is no secret, as defense attorneys released it to
the public when it was used as the basis for criminal counts filed by
abortion advocates in the California state attorney general’s office
against Daleiden.
The defense counsel explained it needed to be in the public if it was
evidence in a criminal case.
But the judge who issued the gag order, U.S. District William Orrick
III, saw it differently and found both Daleiden and his lawyers in
contempt for violating his evidence-suppressing ruling.
The video was created as part of Daleiden’s documentation of the
American abortion industry’s trade of baby body parts. Numerous other
videos, mostly exposing Planned Parenthood and its business trade
partners, were released to the public beginning in 2015.
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