Planned Parenthood backs down on lawsuit against pro-life group

by Rebecca Millette

DES MOINES, IA, January 13, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood has withdrawn a lawsuit against an employee of the pro-life group Operation Rescue (OR), Cheryl Sullenger, for requesting public records about PP employees, OR announced today.

The lawsuit was an attempt by the abortion giant to block the Iowa Board of Medicine (IBM) from releasing public information about four of their employees.  Cheryl Sullenger had requested this documentation of the IBM three months ago, but only received it last week.

Operation Rescue reports that at least two of the “doctors” listed in the information are involved in Planned Parenthood’s webcam abortion pill distribution scheme, known as telemed abortions.

“While all the documents were heavily redacted – more so than we usually see with these kinds of records – we are grateful to our legal team … for working so hard to ensure that Planned Parenthood did not wrongfully conceal information that the public has a right to know. This is a victory for everyone because it helps keep the government accountable to the people,” said Sullenger.

Operation Rescue has been closely monitoring Planned Parenthood’s telemed abortions since they were first implemented in the state of Iowa in June 2005.

In addition to the lawsuit dropped against Cherly Sullenger, Operation Rescue reports that two similar suits have also been dropped. The Citizen’s Information Center and another requester, both from Massachusetts, had made similar, independent requests.

“It looks to us like Planned Parenthood still has a lot to hide. They were so afraid of the discovery phase in the law suits that they apparently decided it was better to allow the Iowa Board of Medicine to release the public information rather than allow us to ask them questions they did not want to answer,” said Sullenger. “We are still very concerned about the cozy relationships that exist between the Iowa Attorney General’s office, the Iowa Board of Medicine and Planned Parenthood.”

Attorneys for Operation Rescue are considering further legal action to ensure that politics are not being placed above the public welfare in Iowa.