Pro-Life Activist Sandra Merritt Asks Calif. Court to Recuse AG Becerra From Case
She is also asking the San Francisco Superior Court to drop all charges against her.
California is still prosecuting the pro-lifers behind the videos exposing Planned Parenthood in 2015.
On Wednesday, Sandra Merritt asked a San Francisco court to recuse the attorney general from her case. She argues that AG Xavier Becerra is biased against her. She also asked the court to drop all charges she faces.
Merritt is one person behind the Center for Medial Progress (CMP) undercover videos. She and David Daleiden secretly recorded 14 people in 2014. That included Planned Parenthood employees and partners. Some discussed late-term abortion methods. Others haggled over the price of aborted baby parts.
The videos revealed that Planned Parenthood profited from the fetal tissue. Some providers even altered methods to procure babies who were more “intact.”
In 2015, CMP released the recordings. Planned Parenthood insisted CMP “deceptively edited” the videos. But an analysis proved they did not. Congress investigated Planned Parenthood. So did several states. Now, the abortion provider no longer receives money from aborted fetal tissue.
The videos also motivated pro-lifers to push for the the organization’s defunding.
Politically Motivated
But the ordeal wasn’t over. Becerra retaliated. He charged Merritt and Daleiden with 15 felonies. That included one charge for each person recorded. One charge was for conspiring to invade privacy.
Secretly recording someone in California is illegal. But California never prosecuted journalists for doing so — until they charged Merritt and Daleiden. In 2014 and 2015, an animal rights group used secret recordings to expose mistreatment at a California poultry farm. The state investigated the farm. But they didn’t investigate the journalists.
Last year, the court dropped 14 of the charges against Merritt. But Becerra filed them again.
Becerra vocally supports Planned Parenthood. According to the motion, Planned Parenthood donated to his campaign. It has also worked closely with his office.
“Attorney General Becerra has no business prosecuting this case,” said Horatio Mihet of Liberty Counsel. The legal group is representing Merritt. “The People of California deserve better,” he said. “The law plainly requires more.”
Charges were also filed against Merritt and Daleiden in Texas. Those charges were dropped.
