NAF’s Trojan Horse: suing pro-life group for something journalists and others have done for years

It is difficult for the media which has been so admittedly pro-abortion to keep focus, so I will let them in on a little secret:

The recent lawsuit filed by the National Abortion Federation (NAF) against a pro-life group exposing a gruesome baby parts operation is nothing more than a Trojan Horse of distraction.

By now we have all seen those undercover videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) showing Planned Parenthood’s horrific baby parts harvesting operation.

As a result, late last month San Francisco Judge William Orrick granted the National Abortion Federation a temporary restraining writing that NAF would likely suffer irreparable injury absent a temporary restraining order.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asks that the Defendants be preliminarily and permanently enjoined from publishing or otherwise disclosing any recordings or confidential information from NAF annual meetings, publishing or otherwise disclosing the names or addresses of any NAF members that they learned at NAF annual meetings, and attempting to gain access to any future NAF meetings.

“NAF meetings are one of the only places where abortion providers can come together to learn about the latest research and advances in their field, and network without fear of harassment or intimidation. Many of the attendees are high-profile targets of anti-abortion extremists,” NAF stated in the press release.

FAKE COMPANY

In their lawsuit, NAF claims that CMP created a “fake company” to expose the Planned Parenthood scheme, writing:

Defendants The Center for Medical Progress (“CMP”), David Daleiden, Troy Newman and individuals acting in concert with them conspired to defraud and did defraud NAF by setting up a fake company (Defendant “Biomax Procurement Services”), which held itself out as a legitimate fetal tissue procurement organization. Daleiden and his cohorts pretended to be officers and employees of their fake company, Biomax Procurement Services. They assumed false identities, used fake driver’s licenses and approached NAF in order to gain access to its annual meetings. Using their fake names and identities, they signed agreements with NAF, agreements designed to protect NAF members from exactly the type of anti-abortion harassment that is the subject of this lawsuit…

Yet, this is just the sort of thing that whistle blowers and investigators do all the time as this 20/20 episode below proves:

As for the use of undercover video, we all know this tactic has been used by journalists for years.

This 20/20 investigation on “Repair Shop Fraud” where a reporter did not “use his real name” is just one example.

There are literally hundreds of these “investigations” out there.

HIDDEN CAMERAS

The NAF lawsuit against the pro-life group also lists CMP’s use of video as a cause to censor their message further:

In order to gain access to NAF’s annual meetings, they then signed agreements with NAF promising not to record video or audio tape, to only use information learned at NAF’s national meetings to enhance the quality and safety of services provided by NAF members, and not to disclose any information learned at NAF’s annual meetings to any third parties. All of these promises were false and fraudulent when they were made.

Undercover video and hidden cameras are used by the media all the time to produce reports and investigations.

Just one example is this CBS affiliate who went “undercover” inside several Los Angelas restaurants:

Lest you think the tactic of video in undercover investigations is only reserved for law enforcement or journalists, they are not.

In fact, several mission driven non-profits have used under cover investigations to make their case.

As one example, prominent on the Humane Society website is an undercover video exposing the mistreatment of pigs.

The non-profit praises the effort describing it this way:

A video from an undercover investigation of a pig factory farm earned both a 2013 Webby People’s Voice Award and a Webby Winner Award. The video, called “Undercover at a Tyson Pig Supplier,” was shot in April 2012 at Wyoming Premium Farms, a pig factory farm in Wheatland, Wyo. that at the time of the investigation was supplying pigs to meat giant Tyson Foods. It shows workers kicking living piglets like soccer balls, swinging sick piglets in circles by their hind legs, striking mother pigs with their fists and repeatedly and forcefully kicking them as they resisted leaving their young. As a result of the exposé, five Wyoming Premium workers recently pleaded guilty to criminal animal cruelty.

Even the abortion rights group NARAL which supports Planned Parenthood’s baby parts operation used under cover tactics to sting what they referred to as “fake pregnancy centers”

Writing for RH Reality Blog, Nina Liss-Schultz, explained the process:

NARAL Pro-Choice California sent women undercover over the past year to more than a quarter of the state’s 167 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), gathering information on the quality and kind of services offered by the anti-choice groups that run those facilities, in addition to the experience a person might have using a CPC as a resource during a pregnancy.

A report conducted by, Vice News revealed that a committed abortion advocate running a project whose sole purpose is to take down pro-life pregnancy centers, recorded conversations with pro-life counselors using hidden cameras.

Katie Stack, who founded The Crisis Project admitted to Vice News that she uses hidden cameras to film the counseling and admitted to using “fake pee” so the counselors would think she was pregnant.

Interestingly, NAF thanked Katie Stack for her work:

In October 2011, rather then condemn Stack’s undercover vids as “fake” she was published in the New York Times op-ed section for her critique of crisis pregnancy centers, “When I Needed Help, I Got Propaganda.”

Like CMP’s David Daleiden, Stack is also a young person in her twenties. However, because she was attacking the pro-life effort to help women, her undercover “investigation” was praised by the media.

But, as I have stated, the use of hidden cameras for undercover investigations is nothing new. A simple search on “Hidden Camera Investigations” on youtube will prove the tactic is universally used.

FAKE NAMES

NAF also accused CMP investigator’s of using fake names….but…that is also a Trojan Horse when you understand that this tactic is used to expose any number of illegal or unethical actions.

As an aside, The Daily Caller once blogged about the use of fake names by reporters generally ( read here.)

When a French female journalist went undercover to find out why teens were flocking to ISIS by setting up a fake Facebook account and a fake name and persona, CBS praised the effort.

Feminist author Gloria Steinem also used the “undercover” “fake name” tactic to expose Playboy.

In 1963, Steinem went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to experience a bunny’s life in Hugh Hefner’s New York Playboy mansion.

She wrote about her experiences in Show Magazine in an article entitled, “A Bunny’s Tale.”

“I’ve decided to call myself Marie Catherine Ochs,” Steinem writes in the story, adding, “I’ve spent the afternoon making up a background for Marie.”

INFILTRATE

Aborted babies from CMP Planned Parenthood vid

The NAF lawsuit against CMP complains that the cunning undercover investigators were able to “infiltrate” their “secret” meetings, writing:

Defendants Daleiden, Newman, CMP, and others associated with the Enterprise, and were willing participants in it. Each had a common purpose and interest in the establishment and operations of the scheme. They also agreed to the manner in which the Enterprise would be conducted, i.e., as evidenced by Daleiden’s own statements, the creation of an admittedly fake company (Biomax Procurement Services) in order to infiltrate by false and fraudulent pretenses NAF’s annual meetings, and to infiltrate the offices and clinics of its constituent members, all for the purposes of portraying NAF and its constituent members in a false light, destroying their professional repuations, and placing NAF members in personal jeopardy. At all relevant times, Daleiden, CMP, Biomax and Newman were generally aware of each other’s conduct in furtherance of the scheme, and were knowing and willing participants in that conduct.

Yet infiltration is also a part of American investigations.

Stetson Kennedy, who wrote an exposé detailing his infiltration of the Klan called, “I Rode With the Ku Klux Klan,” was noted as a “folklorist and social crusader” by the New York Times upon his death.

“After being rejected by the Army because of a bad back, he threw himself into unmasking the Ku Klux Klan as well as the Columbians, a Georgia neo-Nazi group. He was inspired in part by a tale told by an interview subject whose friend had been the victim of a racial murder in Key West,” the New York Times writes.

Last year an international media outlet reported how a retired black police officer was able infiltrate a branch of the Klu Klux Klan in Colorado.

According to that Daily Mail report:

Ron Stallworth was an investigator for the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1979 when he answered a newspaper ad placed by a new KKK group, who were looking for local members.

Writing about the experience in a new book, Black Klansman, Stallworth explains how the hate group not only made him a member, but voted to make him the chapter’s leader after only one year.

‘So they took a vote, they took a unanimous vote and they wanted Ron Stallworth to become the leader of the Ku Klux Klan chapter because he was quote loyal and a dedicated Klansman,” Stallowrth told Salt Lake City’s ABC 4.

Earlier this year, Business Insider reported the way one filmmaker infiltrated the Church of Scientology, writing:

Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) remembers how he reacted the first time he was offered the chance to do a film on the Church of Scientology.

“I turned it down,” he told Business Insider…

Gibney’s approach to secrecy came from his talks with Wright, who used similar methods when he interviewed former church members for his book. “I often used throw-away phones and encrypted email,” he said. “People were so frightened.”

The film was not condemned by the left and even premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Interestingly, after the Church of Scientology attempted to discredit his investigation Gibney responded, “They are playing a PR game with them to say, ‘Look at these evil people who are attacking us. Look how valiantly we are trying to defend our organization,‘” he said.

Sound familiar?

As much as the media is crying foul when CMP exposes Planned Parenthood, they remained relatively quiet when the left leaning PETA organization infiltrated a KFC supplier using those infamous undercover videos and posing as a worker for the chicken factory.

A look at NAF’s requirements for becoming a member reveals that the “infiltration” issue is more a culpability on their part than on CMP.

The abortion lobby group promises members:

Because NAF and our members have been the targets of anti-abortion activity, our application asks for references. Specifically, we ask for references from current NAF members or from other people or institutions known to us. If you have difficulty with this requirement, please call the NAF membership office at 202-667-5881.

Did NAF ask for references or did they allow the pro-life undercover operatives into their inner circle with no or little scrutiny? Whichever is the case, NAF’s first and foremost concern must be their own multi-million dollar pockets. If the CMP vids are released as they should be, the one who should be sued here by anyone who attended their conference is the National Abortion Federation in my view.

But, it’s not just their attendees that are a concern to NAF.

The organization which touts the highest standards for abortion care happens to have as their members the same Planned Parenthood centers now under investigation for possible illegal activity.

A breakdown of each Planned Parenthood exposed by CMP and their ties to NAF are listed below:

The first CMP video released featured the Vice President and Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) in Denver, CO, Dr. Savita Ginde. PPRM is one of the largest and wealthiest Planned Parenthood affiliates and operates clinics in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nevada.

Another shocking video showed Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains VP & Medical Director Savita Ginde discussing contract details for aborted baby pricing and how not to “get caught.”

Not only was the Denver affiliate of PPRM listed as a NAF Member but so were several others:

In Center for Medical Progress’ first video Dr. Deborah Nucatola head of Planned Parenthood’s medical services department bragged how she would crush above or crush below the desired unborn child’s organ to appease “buyers” of the fetal body parts.

Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors’ Council President Mary Gatter described on tape how she would modify the abortion procedure, performing a “Less Crunchy” technique to obtain more “whole specimens.” Gatter then joked about wanting a Lamborghini. In that second video, Gatter was also caught haggling over payments for intact fetal specimens and offering to use a “less crunchy technique” to get more intact body parts.

Both Gatter and Nucatola are referenced in NAF guidelines on abortion ( read here.)

The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch’s track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact fetuses.

And…the Houston Planned Parenthood abortion center is listed as a NAF member:

NAF, with all their talk about high standards, is spending far more time attacking the Center for Medical Progress than investigating the allegations of illegal activity by Planned Parenthood.

Although NAF supports the use of aborted babies for research they claim to require their members to obey all laws regarding their procurement as well as forbidding any monetary compensation, something Planned Parenthood is being accused of doing.

NAF says they support fetal tissue donation as long as Federal laws and regulations are observed and according to NAF:

I.Informed consent for fetal tissue donation may not be obtained until after a patient has given full informed consent for the abortion.
II.A woman’s decision to donate fetal tissue must be voluntary and uncoerced.Providers must not offer any financial or other incentives to the patient.
III.Clinics and providers cannot financially gain from their participation in fetal tissue donation. Remuneration is limited to “reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of fetal tissue” (NIH Revitalization Act of 1993).
IV.Providers cannot change abortion procedures specifically to accommodate fetal tissue collection needs.

In NAF’s Fetal Tissue Donation Position Statement they state:

NAF requires that all members adhere to the applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations governing fetal tissue donation…NAF strongly supports existing prohibitions against financial gain from fetal tissue donation.

The American Medical Association also states that no financial benefit should be granted to those who abort the child whose tissue is later donated for research.

It’s time to stop focusing on NAF’s Trojan Horse and start asking why the organization which allegedly creates guidelines and standards for the abortion industry isn’t saying more to condemn Planned Parenthood!

Former abortion clinic worker turned ardent pro-life human rights advocate, Jewels Green wrote an interesting piece on this entire scam as well, where she points out that:

NAF is suing under the Federal Civil RICO statute, civil conspiracy, breach of contract, and various state statutes.

CMP’s attorneys will no doubt point out that damages for emotional distress or any personal injury claimed by NAF members are not cognizable under civil RICO. See, e.g., Grogan v. Platt, 835 F.2d 844, 846 (11th Cir. 1988); James v. Meow Media, Inc., 90 F. Supp.2d 798, 814 (W.D. Ky. 2000); Moore v. Eli Lilly & Co., 626 F. Supp. 365, 367 (D. Mass. 1986); City and County of San Fransisco v. Philip Morris, 957 F. Supp. 1130, 1138-39 (N.D. Cal. 1997).

Similarly, “reputational injuries” from alleged defamation are not actionable under RICO. Santana v. Cook County Bd. of Review, 679 F.3d 614, 623 (7th Cir. 2012).

But this doesn’t mean they won’t try, because…they’re doing it right now.

This will be an interesting trial because any evidence of a civil conspiracy on CMP’s part will also be evidence of a criminal conspiracy on NAF’s part.

Adding:

NAF brought the fight, but it plays right into CMP’s hands.

Why?

Because the basis for each of NAF’s assertions of fact and law is discoverable.

Should be interesting how this plays out!

#StopNAFCensorship