The Thomas More Society, on behalf of the pro-life investigators at the Center for Medical Progress, has filed papers with the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, to lift the injunction on releasing documents pertaining to the University of Washington’s use of parts from aborted babies.
The records could shed light on Planned Parenthood’s oft-repeated claim that its tissue program facilitated nothing more than “donations,” rather than illegal profits as indicated by Planned Parenthood officials caught on tape by CMP’s undercover videos released last year. But opponents of the request claim releasing the documents could jeopardize the privacy of researchers.
Thomas More has responded that Washington’s Public Records Act does not justify the restraining order, as there is no expectation of privacy pertaining to public employees’ work for a state agency governed by an open records law.
“The people have a right to know how their government is run,” Thomas More Society Special Counsel Peter Breen said. He went on to declare, “The abortion clinic and fetal tissue personnel who brought this lawsuit should not be allowed to prevent the people of the State of Washington from monitoring their government’s involvement in the national controversy over aborted fetal body parts.”
