AAP FACTCHECK – Kamala Harris prosecuted “journalists” who exposed that a reproductive health nonprofit was selling aborted fetal body parts, according to social media users.
This is false. Multiple investigations into the nonprofit, Planned Parenthood, found no evidence it sold fetal body parts for profit.
What’s more, while Ms Harris was California’s Attorney-General when a probe was announced into the actions of two anti-abortion activists, she had left the post by the time they were charged.
One Facebook post’s image reads: “Remember when two undercover journalists exposed that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted fetal body parts, and the California Attorney General prosecuted the journalists instead of Planned Parenthood? That Attorney General was Kamala Harris”.
“Harris is one mighty evil piece of work,” the caption adds.
Multiple other posts make similar claims.
The claim dates back to when Ms Harris ran for vice president in the 2020 US presidential election.
The posts have resurfaced on social media after Ms Harris became the front-runner for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, which she effectively secured on August 6 via a virtual roll call of delegates.
In 2015, anti-abortion organisation the Center for Medical Progress released videos that anti-abortion activists claimed were evidence Planned Parenthood was selling fetal body parts from aborted babies for profit.
David Daleiden, founder of the centre, and fellow activist Sandra Merritt went undercover posing as employees of a fake biomedical research company.
In secretly recorded videos with Planned Parenthood officials, they posed as wanting to buy fetal tissue in a sting operation.
Both buying and selling fetal tissue and organs is illegal under US federal law. However, donating fetal tissue for scientific research is legal with written consent.
Clinics that donate tissue are allowed to ask for “reasonable payments” to cover costs such as transportation, preservation and storage.
Planned Parenthood denied it “sells” tissue, and had experts analyse the videos which they said revealed the footage was altered.
A longer version of the video also shows a Planned Parenthood executive emphasising clinics do not seek a profit and “want to break even and every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient to provide a service”.
At least 12 US states launched investigations into Planned Parenthood in the aftermath of the videos and found no evidence that it was selling or trafficking fetal body parts or tissue.
Regardless, some states still took steps to defund the organisation.
Two federal Republican-led committees also did not find evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood, but still recommended the organisation be defunded.
While many states launched investigations into Planned Parenthood, California was not one of them.
Instead, the state was among those to investigate the Center for Medical Progress’s actions. The probe was announced when Ms Harris was the state’s attorney-general in 2015.
The investigation included a raid on Mr Daleiden’s home in 2016, during which police seized videos and other evidence.
However, Ms Harris stepped down as attorney-general in January 2017 to become a US senator.
She was not the attorney-general when Mr Daleiden and Ms Merritt were charged with several counts of unlawfully recording people without their consent and conspiracy to invade privacy in March 2017.
The attorney-general of California at the time was Xavier Becerra.
Mr Daleiden and Ms Merritt have both pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
In 2019, a civil federal jury in San Francisco awarded Planned Parenthood over $US 2 million ($A 3 million) in damages after a lawsuit found the Center for Medical Progress had broken federal and state laws.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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