StemExpress drops lawsuit against producer of undercover Planned Parenthood videos

StemExpress, the biomedical company accused of partnering with Planned Parenthood to sell aborted fetal parts, has dropped its lawsuit against the producer of the undercover videos that exposed its alleged illegal activities.

In 2015, Center for Medical Progress (CMP) Project Lead David Daleiden released a series of undercover videos in which he posed as a biomedical company executive to conduct interviews with officials of Planned Parenthood and StemExpress about their fetal tissue practices.

In July 2015, StemExpress filed a gag order request against CMP to prevent the release of a footage showing its CEO Cate Dyer discussing the acquisition of fully intact baby bodies from abortion. The gag order was denied in August that same year, and the video was released.

StemExpress tried to settle the case with CMP, but its lawyers at McDermott, Will & Emery stopped representing the procurement company after less than a year.

"StemExpress was the first of Planned Parenthood's accomplices to file a retaliatory lawsuit against citizen journalists and the first to seek an unconstitutional prior restraint on our First Amendment rights to speak and publish," Daleiden said in a statement, according to Life News.

"Now, the video is out for all the world to see, StemExpress faces criminal referral in multiple jurisdictions, and they are walking away from their own lawsuit empty-handed," he continued.

The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives issued subpoenas to StemExpress in 2016 to obtain its accounting and bank records, but it received no response.

In September, the House panel voted to hold the company in contempt of Congress for stonewalling the investigation into the fetal parts sales scandal.

The panel stated in its report that StemExpress had destroyed documents after the company filed its lawsuit, violating the document retention rules and Congressional subpoenas.

StemExpress has since been referred to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House panel.

Daleiden considered the company's decision to drop the lawsuit as a "victory for free speech."

"StemExpress' surrender sends an unmistakable message to Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and all their political cronies who would dare to attack the First Amendment to cover up their crimes," he stated.