Pictured is Troy Newman (second from left) and his ACLJ legal team outside the San Francisco Courthouse during the 2019 Planned Parenthood baby parts trial.

PRESS RELEASE

San Francisco, CA – A three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit Court has denied the appeal of a $2.4 million judgment levied against pro-life journalists, including Operation Rescue President Troy Newman and members of the Center for Medical Progress, who exposed Planned Parenthood’s illegal trafficking of tissues and organs harvested from aborted babies for profit in 2015.

The decision in appellate the case, Planned Parenthood v. Troy Newman, et. al., rejected arguments based primarily on the defense of the pro-lifers’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Newman’s right to claim the Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination stemming from a civil suit brought by Planned Parenthood in which the journalists were found to have violated the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations act, or RICO in 2019.

The three-member panel was stacked against the pro-life position, consisting of two appointees of former President Barack Obama and one of former President Bill Clinton, both of which hold radically pro-abortion views and reflected them in their judicial appointments.

“This is a prime example of the two-tiered system of justice that now plagues our nation,” said Newman. “We caught Planned Parenthood red-handed breaking a plethora of state and federal laws, and even showed that they were harvesting organs from babies born alive during late-term abortions.  Yet those of us who exposed these horrific crimes are punished while law enforcement still looks the other way as Planned Parenthood continues to illegally traffic aborted baby remains for profit.”

Newman noted that two members of his investigative team still face criminal felonies in California for posing as representatives of an organ procurement company to conduct their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood’s illicit baby parts trade.

Investigative committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives both referred Planned Parenthood to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution in 2016, but those referrals were ignored by a compromised Department of Justice.

“The political elite will stop at nothing to cover up for Planned Parenthood baby-killing criminals,” said Newman.  “But the truth cannot be buried forever. I am more determined than ever to expose the truth about Planned Parenthoods illegal and abusive conduct that destroys innocent lives and inflicts human misery on women, families, and society.”

Newman said his legal team from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) plans to appeal to the full Ninth Circuit, which has become more balanced since President Donald J. Trump added several conservative justices to that famously liberal court.

Read the decision.