An anti-abortion group was the subject of a restraining order on Friday after they released secretly recorded footage of meetings from the National Abortion Federation.
The Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization founded by former Live Action activist David Daleiden in 2013, recorded meetings of the National Abortion Federation with a hidden camera and posted them on their own website. The National Abortion Federation is one of the most important groups of abortion providers in the world, with half of all the abortions performed in the United States and Canada done by their members.
According to CNN, California District Judge William Orrick III has ruled the restraining order due to safety concerns regarding the National Abortion Federation’s leaders, with it being temporary and including actions such harassment, violence, invasion of privacy, calumny and intimidation.
Mr. Daleiden issued a statement on Friday in which he deemed the National Abortion Federation as a criminal organization, while also stating that the Center for Medical Progress will appeal the decision:
“The National Abortion Federation is a criminal organization that has spent years conspiring with Planned Parenthood on how to violate federal laws on partial-birth abortion and fetal tissue sales. The Center for Medical Progress will contest any attempts to suppress our First Amendment rights to free speech or silence the freedom of the citizen press.”
However, through the voice of spokeswoman Juliet Di Frenza, the National Abortion Federation welcomed the decision, stating that the videos were recorded illegally and that their meetings are one of the few places were medical personalities which are targeted by anti-abortion extremists can meet to converse freely and without pressure.
This is not first time the Center for Medical Progress is in the spotlight, after it previously showed what are alleged to be heavily edited videos of officials from Planned Parenthood engaging in illegal sales of fetal tissue. Mr. Daleiden threatened after the decision to release about 10 more videos of conversations with Planned Parenthood employees.
The Planned Parenthood scandal has put the nationally hot debate surrounding abortion on Colorado’s back, where the controversial videos originated from. Pro-life and anti-abortion activists demonstrators have held daily protests in front of the institution’s Denver office, including toy baby parts. To date, the institution is keeping its original position of claiming the videos have been edited.
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