The released videos appeared to show various Planned Parenthood and StemExpress executives discussing, often callously, their practices for obtaining and selling fetal body parts. Daleidan alleged that Planned Parenthood was profiting from these sales, which is illegal under federal law.
Other videos appeared to show abortion doctors describing how they would perform illegal late-term abortions in violation of state laws, utilizing a series of loopholes, and one cracked a joke on camera about how her "biceps appreciate" when a drug kills the fetus before it is delivered.
At stake in the current lawsuits are several other unreleased videos that were shot at the 2014 and 2015 annual meetings of the National Abortion Federation. Daleidan attended the conference and filmed portions of it while using an alias.
The National Abortion Federation – a nonprofit that represents abortion clinics – filed suit in 2015 to prevent the videos from being released, claiming they were illegally recorded. Daleidan has defended himself against these allegations by saying he is a citizen journalist, and the videos were protected as part of his work as a reporter.
On Twitter, Daleidan said that the Department of Justice's ongoing investigation of Planned Parenthood means that the unreleased footage will "only grow more and more relevant" until it will be eventually released.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheJusticeDept</a> continues to investigate <a href="https://twitter.com/PPact?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PPact</a> for the criminal sale of baby body parts, the undercover footage that Judge Orrick continues to suppress will only grow more and more relevant until it can finally be revealed to the public.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PPSellsBabyParts?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PPSellsBabyParts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShutThemDown?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ShutThemDown</a> <a href="https://t.co/NtWNfld1zb">https://t.co/NtWNfld1zb</a></p>— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/daviddaleiden/status/980971235268952064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>