Abortion foe behind failed Planned Parenthood sting aims at UW Workers sue to block university from releasing names to anti-choice activists

Planned Parenthood supporters are pictured outside a Seattle clinic in a file photo. Planned Parenthood supporters are pictured outside a Seattle clinic in a file photo. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Abortion foe behind failed Planned Parenthood sting aims at UW 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Anti-abortion activists on a so-far failed mission to show Planned Parenthood is selling fetal tissue have a new target – the University of Washington.

Using state public records laws, activists have sought correspondence between clinics associated with Planned Parenthood and the UW Birth Defect Research Laboratory. Among those seeking the records is David Daleiden, a California man best known for secretly recording meetings with Planned Parent managers.

Daleiden’s videos were cut to give the impression that Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest providers of women’s health services, including abortion – was selling fetal tissue. Abortion rights opponents used the eight-minute film to push for fruitless investigations into Planned Parenthood, including one in Washington that concluded in November.

In February, Daleiden and a staffer with the socially conservative Family Policy Institute of Washington filed a pair of public records requests with UW. Each demanded records related to the UW research lab’s relationship with Planned Parenthood; Daleiden is also seeking correspondence between several bioscience firms at the Seattle university.

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Concerned that the records request could prompt the release of private information, attorneys representing employees of the university, Planned Parenthood and area hospitals sued last week to block portions of the release.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court at Seattle, would force UW to censor the workers’ names and identifying information before releasing the records.

“The current political climate has heightened attention and awareness of fetal tissue donation and research,” attorneys for the workers said in court papers. “Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress played a direct role in creating that political climate. …

“Employees of such medical providers across the country, including in Washington State and including several individual (plaintiffs) have been harassed, threatened, or witnessed incidents of violence due to their possible affiliation with fetal tissue donations. (They) reasonably fear for their safety and privacy if their personal identifying information is released.”

The workers’ attorneys not that Daleiden’s efforts sparked a series of investigations into unfounded claims that Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetal remains. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson conducted one such investigation at the request from legislators, and found the claims of misconduct empty and malicious.

“Unfounded allegations against Planned Parenthood are troubling,” Ferguson said in November. “They seek to discredit the organization and divert resources away from patient services, making it more difficult for Washington women to exercise their constitutional rights.”

In a statement, Washington Family Policy Institute director Joseph Backholm said the public records requests are a continuation of Daleiden’s effort.

Backholm said his organization aims to “verify” the findings of the Attorney General’s Office investigation. He went on to surmise that state investigators stopped short of reviewing contracts between the UW center and purveyors of what he described as “aborted body parts.”

Backholm described the lawsuit as a “distraction” and that his organization’s interest is in viewing information related to those UW contracts.

“The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that their safety would be in jeopardy if their identities became public,” Backholm said.

“Coming from an industry built on violence to others, this is deeply ironic. But that is beside the point,” he continued. “The conversation about who is a bigger threat to whom is irrelevant to the legal question about whether anyone in Washington was illegally profiting off the sale of baby body parts.”

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Karl Eastlund, CEO of a Seattle-based Planned Parenthood affiliate, said the organization remains committed to rigorously protecting its staff. Eastlund described the records requests as part of a “smear campaign by anti-abortion extremists” that has resulted in threats and harassment.

“Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho is proud to help patients who wish to donate tissue to medical research,” Eastlund said Saturday. “Our medical practices and guidelines in this area are clear, and we do this important work just like other high-quality health care providers — with full, appropriate consent from patients, under the highest ethical and legal standards, and with no financial benefit for the patient or Planned Parenthood."

U.S. District Judge James Robart on Wednesday issued a temporary order preventing UW from releasing the records until a full hearing can be held. Such orders are standard practice in public disclosure matters.

A preliminary hearing on the matter is expected Aug. 19 at U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 orlevipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.



