Judge: Anti-abortion leader’s attorneys violated court order
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge said Tuesday he will hold attorneys for the head of an anti-abortion group in contempt after links to videos that the judge had barred from release appeared on their website.
U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick said attorneys Steve Cooley and Brentford J. Ferreira had violated his injunction.
The two attorneys represent David Daleiden, a leader of the Center for Medical Progress. The centre has released several secretly recorded videos that it says show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal tissue for profit, which is illegal. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited to support false claims.
The videos stoked the American abortion debate when they were released in 2015 and increased Congressional heat against Planned Parenthood.