A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order late Friday to stop the Center for Medical Progress from releasing undercover video taken at the closed annual meetings of the National Abortion Federation.
U.S. District Court Judge William H. Orrick III of the Northern District of California in San Francisco also scheduled a hearing Monday on whether to grant the federation’s request for a temporary injunction against the future release of footage pending a lawsuit.
“Based on the record before me, I find that NAF is likely to prevail on the merits of its claims, the balance of hardships tips in its favor, NAF would be likely to suffer irreparable injury, absent an ex parte temporary restraining order, in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation, and the requested relief is in the public interest,” the judge said in his three-page order.
The center’s David Daleiden issued a statement late Friday reiterating that the organization “follows all applicable laws” and accusing the NAF of engaging in criminal activity in regard to fetal-tissue sales from abortions.
“The National Abortion Federation is a criminal organization that has spent years conspiring with Planned Parenthood on how to violate federal laws on partial-birth abortion and fetal tissue sales,” he said in the statement. “The Center for Medical Progress will contest any attempts to suppress our First Amendment rights to free speech or silence the freedom of the citizen press.”
NAF President and CEO Vicki Saporta said the lawsuit is necessary to protect the safety of its members at its highly secure annual meetings, whose dates and locations are only released to attendees and which feature “strict security measures,” including full-time guards.
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“That security has been compromised by the illegal activities of a group with ties to those who believe it is justifiable to murder abortion providers,” Ms. Saporta said in a statement. “CMP went to great lengths to infiltrate our meetings as part of a campaign to intimidate and attack abortion providers.”
Undercover investigators from the center attended the NAF’s 2015 annual meeting in Baltimore and 2014 meeting in San Francisco, posing as officials from the front company Biomax Procurement Services and using phony California driver’s licenses, according to the NAF’s motion.
They also signed non-disclosure statements agreeing not to make audio or video recordings the meetings or release information without NAF’s consent, the document said.
Biomax set up a booth in the exhibitors’ area featuring signs and brochures and presenting itself as a “legitimate tissue procurement service organization.”
“Daleiden and his cohorts roamed the exhibit hall, attempting to speak with meeting attendees, gathering information about names and locations of abortion providers, and, as NAF now believes, surreptitiously recording conversations at the meeting,” said the motion. “Multiple NAF staff recall Biomax’s agents approaching them.”
The federation is seeking to prevent the pro-life center from releasing video footage, disclosing the dates and locations of future NAF meetings, publishing the names and addresses of NAF officials, and attempting to gain access to future meetings.
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The NAF motion said that about 750 to 800 abortion providers and others typically attend such meetings.
This is the second temporary restraining order granted against the pro-life center, whose undercover video of Planned Parenthood officials and others involved with selling fetal tissue for medical research has triggered a national uproar.
On Tuesday, StemExpress, a California bioservice company that acts as a conduit between Planned Parenthood clinics and research facilities, won a temporary restraining order against the release of video footage showing three of its employees at a dinner with undercover CMP investigators.
A hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joanne O’Donnell on the company’s request for a temporary injunction pending a lawsuit is scheduled for Aug. 19.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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