Planned Parenthood sues antiabortion activists

Planned Parenthood and its California affiliates filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against antiabortion activists, accusing them of secretly filming staff members to appear as though they were illegally trafficking fetal tissue to advance a larger goal to end women’s access to legal abortions.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is Planned Parenthood’s first legal action against the conservative Center for Medical Progress in Irvine and alleges the group violated numerous state and federal laws and put patients, health providers and others at risk.

“It’s time to hold these antiabortion extremists accountable for the laws they have broken and the harm they have caused,” said Beth Parker, chief legal counsel for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, in a call with reporters.

The filing comes six months after the Center for Medical Progress released covertly recorded videos that purported to show Planned Parenthood officials seeking to make money from the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers, which is against the law.

The controversy triggered a series of hearings led by Republicans in Congress and a failed attempt to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

Program defended

Planned Parenthood officials have said the videos were deceptively edited and vehemently defended the fetal tissue program.

Stem cells derived from fetal tissues have been instrumental in creating various vaccines, including those for measles and polio, and hold great promise in developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s as well as spinal cord injuries and blindness.

“Planned Parenthood provides high-quality, compassionate care and does nothing wrong,” said Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

California features prominently in the controversy because it is one of just two states involved in Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue donation program, which procures tissue from aborted fetuses for stem cell research. The other state is Washington.

Planned Parenthood has accused the defendants — including the center’s leader, David Daleiden, and five others in the organization — of engaging in a three-year “complex criminal enterprise” that involved setting up a sham tissue procurement company called Biomax. The suit says members used fake identities, even going as far as creating bogus driver’s licenses, to gain access to private conferences.

Numerous claims

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims the defendants violated federal racketeering laws and engaged in wire fraud, mail fraud, invasion of privacy, illegal secret recording and trespassing.

Officials from the Center for Medical Progress called the lawsuit frivolous, saying it was filed in retaliation for the group’s “First Amendment investigative journalism.”

“This last-ditch move of desperation is going to expose all of the sordid dealings of the California Planned Parenthood affiliates to the light of the legal system, and the public will see them for the corrupt abortion and baby body parts profiteers that they really are,” the group said.

Planned Parenthood’s Bay Area affiliates stopped donating aborted fetal tissue after the videos surfaced because it lost its contract with the agency that processed the specimens as a result of the controversy. The agency, StemExpress, has since filed a state lawsuit against the Center for Medical Progress, accusing the group of violating California’s wiretapping laws.

In October, Planned Parenthood decided to stop accepting any compensation related to the administration of its fetal tissue donation program in an attempt to eliminate monetary concerns.

Since the videos were released, Planned Parenthood officials said its employees have received death threats, been forced to move or go into hiding. In November, a gunman attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three people and injuring nine.

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver