YouTube Removes Latest Video Exposing Planned Parenthood
YouTube removed the latest video exposing Planned Parenthood directors laughing about dismembering fully formed babies hours after it was published, a move pro-life activists say is a cave to censorship pressure from the abortion industry.
The most recent video footage, which showed The Center for Medical Progress President David Daleiden interviewing Planned Parenthood abortionists and portions of a panel discussion at a National Abortion Federation conference, was widely shared Thursday. After sparking numerous horrified reactions across social media, YouTube took the video down around 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
The footage shows abortionists explicitly referring to their work as "violence," and "killing," complaining about how hard it is to rip apart with forceps the "tough little object" known as the baby, and bemoaning that they do not have many forums where they can share their stories about "heads that get stuck that we can't get out."
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Pro-life advocates believe YouTube's censorship is a craven attempt to suppress the truth.
Culture of Life Africa founder Obianuju Eckeocha mused on Twitter in response to the censorship: "Have [you] ever wondered how the Nazis' crimes committed against humanity weren't stopped sooner? YouTube shows us exactly how that's possible."
Have u ever wondered how the Nazis' crimes committed against humanity weren't stopped sooner?
YouTube shows us exactly how that's possibleThe video was supposedly taken down for "violating YouTube's Terms of Service." Yet the remainder of the CMP videos which document the abortion giant's participation in the selling of fetal body parts and the industry's inner workings since the summer of 2015, when the first portion of footage of the group's undercover investigation was released, can still be viewed. The videos led to a congressional investigation and repeated calls for Planned Parenthood's federal funding to be slashed.
Live Action, a pro-life group that has done many undercover sting investigations into Planned Parenthood of their own, suggested that YouTube "has caved to the abortion industry's censorship pressure" in a news release late Thursday. Such tactics are typical for the abortion industry, they noted.
"Several of the abortion industry workers on the video appear to mention illegal activity," the Live Action report said.
"It's really no wonder that NAF is fighting tooth and nail to censor CMP, even though undercover investigations are common in journalism."
LifeSiteNews and several other pro-life media outlets managed to save the video and repost it elsewhere online.
Daleiden and his colleague Sandra Merritt are now being criminally charged with 15 felonies in California related to recording "confidential" communications "intentionally and without the consent of all parties." The liberal-leaning newspaper The Los Angeles Times decried the charges, noting the freedom of the press implications. Daleiden has previously faced similar charges in Texas but they were ultimately thrown out.
In March the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court's 2015 injunction in favor of the National Abortion Federation which forbade Daleiden from releasing any additional footage from his investigation that had not yet been published.
Yet in light of CMP's publication of videos this week, a Los Angeles judge is ordering Daleiden and his lawyers to appear for a hearing on June 14 to consider "contempt sanctions," according to the Los Angeles Times Thursday.
