David Daleiden

David Robert Daleiden (born 1989^[2] in California) is a pro-life activist who worked for Live Action before founding the Irvine, California-based Center for Medical Progress (CMP) in 2013.^[3][4]

Early life and family

Daleiden says he is the "child of a crisis pregnancy" and grew up "culturally Catholic."^[5] His mother, Gina Surkala Daleiden, served for 9 years as a trustee on the Davis School Board and is the executive director of First 5 Yolo, a state taxpayer funded early childhood development program.^[6][7]

Daleiden graduated from Davis High School in 2007 and later from Claremont McKenna College.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Pro-life controversy

In 2015, Daleiden released videos showing Planned Parenthood officials ostensibly discussing fees for human fetal tissue and organs.^[13][14] Daleiden, an associate of Lila Rose, ran a Live Action chapter in 2007 and was the organization’s director of research "during the early stages" of the project to make secret recordings of Planned Parenthood clinics.^[15][16] He registered his Center for Medical Progress originally as a tax-exempt biomedical charity. In furtherance of the scheme, he additionally set up a putative biomedical research company called Biomax Procurement Services, but after its real activities were exposed, reregistered it as a journalistic organization.^{[17] [18][15]} He orchestrated surreptitious recordings of interviews where his associates asked about tissue donation costs, and questioned whether tissue samples could be acquired from African American patients with sickle-cell anemia.^[19]

Planned Parenthood asserts that they may donate fetal tissue at the request of a patient, but such tissue is never sold.^[19][20] The content of the videos were widely considered to be intentionally misleading, products of manipulative interviewing and deceptive editing.^[21]

The videos were shown to Republican Congressmen Trent Franks and Tim Murphy two weeks before being made publicly available, leading commentators to note that the timing of the release appeared to coincide with a bipartisan bill to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.^[22][23][5]

On July 31, 2015, the National Abortion Federation sued CMP and Daleiden, alleging that Daleiden's campaign violated its members' privacy and threatened their safety.^[24]

On January 22, 2016, Daleiden appeared on C-SPAN for a question-and-answer session that included viewer call-ins. He advocated reverting current laws back to the time when all elective abortions were criminal acts. The segment's opposing view was presented by NARAL Pro-Choice America policy director Donna Crane.^[25][26]

Criminal charges

On January 25, 2016, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, that originally had investigated the Gulf Coast chapter of Planned Parenthood indicted Daleiden on a felony count of tampering with governmental records by making and using a fake driver's license,^[27] and a misdemeanor charge for emailing an offer to buy fetal tissue for $1,600.^[28][29][30]

Daleiden turned himself in on February 4, 2016,^[31][32] and appeared in court after posting $3,000 bond.^[33] He could have faced a prison sentence of up to 22 years if convicted, according to The Washington Post.^[28] He reportedly rejected a plea deal in the case.^[34]

The misdemeanor charge of offering to buy fetal tissue was dismissed on June 13, 2016, because of a defect in the indictment. The felony charge regarding the alleged use of a false driver license was pending in another court in Harris County.^[35] On July 26, 2016, Texas District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the felony charges at the request of Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson.^[21][36]

References