David Daleiden sees final charge dropped Planned Parenthood case

A pro-life activist known for his undercover work exposing Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts has been cleared of all charges after nearly a decade of litigation.

In a lengthy X post on Wednesday, David Daleiden announced that the final charge against him in connection with the release of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood officials callously talking about procuring and selling unborn babies’ organs, limbs and tissue has been dropped. Daleiden, who leads the pro-life advocacy group Center for Medical Progress, expressed gratitude that the case against him has been “completely expunged” after a decade of litigation. 

Daleiden thanked his legal team at Steve Cooley & Associates for defending him against “powerful, government-funded special interests.” He noted that the resolution of the litigation comes after “a couple months’ administrative delay, and a truly bizarre last-minute ‘April Fool’s’ attempt by [the Planned Parenthood Federation of America] and [the National Abortion Federation] to overturn the State’s agreement” to drop the charges against him. 

The latest development in Daleiden’s case comes a year after he released a statement revealing that “the State of California agreed to totally dismiss the unprecedented video recording case [then-California Attorney General] Kamala Harris brought against me 9 years ago, in exchange for my entering a new plea of ‘no contest’ on a single charge.” As explained by Daleiden in the statement, which he shared in his X post Wednesday, “The agreement involves no admission of wrongdoing, no fines, and no probation.”

“This new ‘no contest’ plea — which cannot be used adversely — will be entered into judgment as a misdemeanor in 6 to 12 months, and then converted to a ‘not guilty’ plea and dismissed,” he added.

In his January 2025 statement reflecting on the impending resolution of his case that  came to fruition Wednesday, Daleiden noted that “7 of the 14 video recording charges initially brought in this case were dismissed halfway through as unsupported by probable cause.”

Daleiden defended the results of his undercover videos, highlighting how “CMP’s undercover reporting at issue in the case led to a $7.8 million settlement in which two companies admitted illegally selling aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood in southern California, a settlement with disgorgement of profits from the sale of aborted fetal organs in Arizona, and the disqualification of Planned Parenthood from state and federal funding in Texas for violations of medical standards and ethics documented on the undercover footage.”

Daleiden’s undercover videos first made national news in 2015. One video showed a senior Planned Parenthood official talking about her efforts to ensure that babies’ body parts remained “intact” because “specimen” parts can bring in $30 to $100 on the market.

CMP insisted that the “sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).”

While Daleiden was focused on acts of wrongdoing committed by Planned Parenthood, Democratic politicians in California alleged that it was Daleiden who was violating the law. In 2017, Daleiden was indicted by a California grand jury on 15 counts of invasion of privacy. 

Then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra defended the charges as necessary punishment for Daleiden and his associate Sandra Merritt because they “used manufactured identities and a fictitious bioresearch company to meet women’s healthcare providers and covertly record the private discussions they initiated.” Identifying the “right to privacy” as “a cornerstone of California’s constitution,” Becerra condemned the “criminal recording of confidential conversations.”

The charges against Daleiden and Merritt followed a 2016 raid on his home conducted by Becerra’s predecessor, future Vice President Kamala Harris, that seized video footage documenting his undercover conversations with Planned Parenthood officials. At the time, Daleiden denounced the effort to “harass and intimidate citizen journalists.”

In his statement reacting to his legal victory, Daleiden said CMP is “quietly working on a big new project to release soon!”