A pro-life hero for exposing Planned Parenthood’s collusion in the baby-parts industry, Sandra Merritt appeared in criminal court Wednesday. Last month California brought a 15-count felony charge against her.

Sandra Merritt Appears in Court for Felony Charges #defundplannedparenthoodhttps://t.co/6KesDTXg0V pic.twitter.com/hFjZoXJf1r

— Liberty Counsel (@libertycounsel) May 3, 2017

Merritt works with David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress. Posing as employees of a fake company and sing fake names and IDs, they went to a conference with abortion providers in 2014 and met with Planned Parenthood executives. They secretly recorded 14 people.

Some videos show Planned Parenthood employees describing late-term abortion methods. Others show executives haggling over compensation for fetal tissue. The conversations appear in multiple videos released since 2015.

The Charges

California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra charged them in March. He brought one charge for each of the 14 people filmed. The 15th is for conspiring to invade privacy.

Becerra is a former Democratic congressman. He took the position when former Attorney General Kamala Harris left for the U.S. Senate this year. Harris began investigating Merritt and Daleiden in 2015. She had taken donations from Planned Parenthood.

California law makes it illegal to record someone without their knowledge when they reasonably expect privacy. However, other journalists have not been charged for similar investigative work in California.

An animal rights group filmed at California poultry farms in 2014 and 2015, National Review notes. It exposed mistreatment of ducks and chickens. State authorities didn’t charge the group. They did investigate the farms.

This isn’t the first time that Merritt and Daleiden have been charged for their undercover work. A Texas grand jury charged them with felonies for using fake identification. The charges were dismissed last year.

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood claims it does nothing wrong. In March, it called the undercover videos “fraudulent.”

The organization has also claimed that the videos were “deceptively edited.” However, as LifeSiteNews noted, they released their full recordings. An independent analysis showed that the “Planned Parenthood executives caught on video clearly say what they said.”

Merritt and Daleiden’s undercover work sparked investigations of Planned Parenthood in several states. They’ve had effect.

Even though no states brought charges against Planned Parenthood, The Federalist noted, Planned Parenthood stopped receiving money for aborted fetal tissue. Two medical companies were recently charged with illegally profiting from fetal tissue. The companies are “top partners” of Planned Parenthood, The Free Beacon reported.

Committees in both the U.S. House and Senate have investigated Planned Parenthood for over a year. Rep. Diane Black of the House panel said the investigation “laid bare the grisly reality” that abortionists are “driven by profit.”

WTVB reports that Merritt and Daleiden will appear before a California court again on June 8. Liberty Counsel is seeking dismissal of the charges.