Court Bars StemExpress From Access To Journalistic Materials Used to Expose Planned Parenthood’s Sale of Aborted Baby Parts

The Superior Court of the State of California ruled Thursday that biomedical company StemExpress has no right to access the journalistic materials of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) which were used to expose Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting and selling the aborted baby body parts to such companies.

In StemExpress v. The Center for Medical Progress, the biomedical company tried to block the release of several documents posted on the CMP website, including a price list for baby parts.

According to the court’s decision:

Plaintiff does not persuade the Court that the discovery it seeks is necessary to obtain the preliminary injunction. That is because it appears unlikely that the Court is going to grant the preliminary injunction. The injunction Plaintiff seeks would prevent Defendants from disseminating the videotapes. First, this proposed injunction would constitute a prior restraint on the Defendants’ rights under the First Amendment and the parallel protections under the California Constitution.

CMP has been represented by Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorneys. Regarding the court’s decision, Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund president Chuck LiMandri said in a statement:

People who don’t have anything to hide don’t go to court to stop journalists from reporting the truth. The court was right to deny StemExpress’ request to gain access to damaging material against them obtained through solid investigative journalism. Americans have the right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby body parts and the ‘fiscal rewards’ Stem Express says that it provides to abortion clinics.

“As has been more than apparent from the videos that have been released, StemExpress and Planned Parenthood have plenty to hide,” Life Legal Defense Foundation vice president of legal affairs Catherine Short added. “These videos not only expose the potential illegality of Planned Parenthood’s actions, they expose the grisly, inhuman nature of Planned Parenthood’s business.”