It is another vindication day for Planned Parenthood.
But one with a deliciously righteous twist.
In very-Republican Texas, a grand jury convened to investigate Planned Parenthood after videos purported to show the agency sold fetal tissue, instead cleared Planned Parenthood and indicted the two abortion foes who made the videos.
This Oct. 22, 2015, photo shows a Planned Parenthood building in Houston. This was the same Lone Star State where Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, last year stood in front of a Texas Values sign and behind a lectern reading “Protect Religious Freedom!” to call for the Harris County prosecutor, also Republican, to investigate Planned Parenthood. And it’s the same state where abortion foes have very nearly shut down all avenues to reproductive choice for millions of women.
But on Monday, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson (another Republican) said in a statement that the grand jury found no wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood, but charged David R. Daleiden, the 27-year-old director of the Center for Medical Progress, with tampering with a governmental record, a felony. He also faces a misdemeanor charge related to the offer to purchase human organs. (Texas has laws prohibiting such offers.) Another center employee, Sandra S. Merritt, 62, also was charged with government record tampering. The indictment alleges that Daleiden and Merritt made and presented fake California driver’s licenses, with the intent to defraud, for their April meeting at Planned Parenthood in Houston.