California AG charges two pro-life activists with 15 felony counts over Planned Parenthood sting videos

David Daleiden appears in a screen capture of a video from Texas Right to Life. | YouTube/Texas Right to Life

The California attorney general has filed 15 felony charges on Tuesday against pro-life activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) for their part in recording videos during their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood in 2015.

California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra alleged that Daleiden and Merritt broke the state's privacy law by filming their conversations with Planned Parenthood officials and others without their consent.

The pro-life activists were charged with one felony count for each of the 14 people they filmed without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and El Dorado counties. The 15th charge against the pair was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. CMP stated on its website on Tuesday that the charges were "bogus."

"The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners," CMP said in a statement.

"We look forward to showing the entire world what is on our yet-unreleased videotapes of Planned Parenthood's criminal baby body parts enterprise, in vindication of the First Amendment rights of all," it continued.

The investigation against Daleiden and Merritt began after the 2015 release of the undercover videos of their meetings with abortionists and fetal procurement companies in California and Texas. The pair used fake identities claiming to represent fictitious businesses in order to discuss the illegal sales of fetal remains with officials of Planned Parenthood and biomedical companies.

Planned Parenthood denied the allegation that it was involved in illegal sales of aborted baby parts and said that the videos were deceptively edited propaganda.

"As we have said from the beginning, and as more than a dozen different state investigations have made clear: Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong, and the only people who broke the law are those behind the fraudulent tapes," Mary Alice Carter, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's interim vice president of communications, said in a statement.

Under California law, both parties are required to give consent to the recording of what could be "reasonably" considered as a confidential conversation. However, it "excludes a communication made in a public gathering" or other circumstances in which the both parties may expect the conversation to be overheard or recorded.

Planned Parenthood was able to avoid federal charges, but it continues to face the loss of federal funding due to the outrage among conservative lawmakers over the videos. Some of the biomedical companies are currently being investigated or facing charges for illegal profiteering, according to World Magazine.