California Drops Charges Against Pro-Life Journalists

On Monday night, pro-life journalist David Daleiden shared a press release from his X account that the charges against him had been dropped. Such a legal battle had been going on for nine years, from when former Vice President Kamala Harris served as Attorney General of California and came up with a bill to be used against pro-life journalists, like Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, for their pro-life videos exposing Planned Parenthood for selling harvested baby body parts. These videos from Daleiden's Center for Medical Progress (CMP) were first released in the summer of 2015.

As Daleiden's press release explained, he will enter a "no contest" plea on a single charge, which he made clear "involves no admission of wrongdoing, no fines, and no probation." It "cannot be used adversely" and "will be entered into judgment as a misdemeanor in 6 to 12 months, and then converted to a 'not guilty' plea and dismissed."

The release of CMP's undercover videos has led to settlement lawsuits with two companies admitting that they illegally sold aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood, and Planned Parenthood also "now faces a nearly $2 billion federal False Claims Act case from the disqualification" of state and federal funds in Texas.

This is hardly the only legal battle, though. "Other litigation continues about the constitutionality if antiquated state video recording laws like California's," Daleiden's press release wrote.

"Taking the San Francisco case off the board allows me to focus fully on CMP's mission to report on the injustice of taxpayer-funded experiments on aborted babies and continue to expand our groundbreaking investigative reporting," Daleiden's press release concluded.

🚨⚖️✌🏾VICTORY!!! California DROPS Prosecution Launched by @KamalaHarris to Cover Up #PPSellsBabyParts Undercover Videos pic.twitter.com/y1ityd8eYw
— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) January 28, 2025

Many pro-lifers took to celebrating the drop of charges on X.

BREAKING:

California is dropping ALL charges against pro-life journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt who exposed Planned Parenthood selling baby body parts
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) January 28, 2025

Harmeet Dhillon (@pnjaban)—President @realDonaldTrump's excellent nominee for Civil Rights AAG—is the reason my CENSORED undercover videos finally came out this year!@PPFA tried to stop us last minute—but Harmeet got it over the finish line!!!🙌🏽⚖️🇺🇸▶️
pic.twitter.com/3mY8PyJd3M
— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) December 13, 2024

Such a move also means the losses keep coming for Harris. In late 2016, then Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed AB 1671 into law to criminalize free speech rights and silence whistleblowers, like Daleiden and Merritt. The bill, which Harris worked on with Planned Parenthood to craft, was opposed even by those journalists who don't support CMP.

Harris was also heavily criticized by pro-life groups, as she had the homes of Daleiden and Merritt raided in 2016, months before AB 1671 was signed into law.

Ahead of the 2024 election, where Harris had been installed as the Democratic nominee upon former President Joe Biden being forced out of the race, her targeting of pro-life journalists came up as a mark against her. Harris was downright obsessive about making abortion a central part of her campaign, and the Harris-Walz ticket even turned to repeatedly lying about President Donald Trump's position on the issue, falsely claiming he would institute a nationwide ban.