The political Left increasingly uses criminal prosecutions — or the threat thereof — as a political cudgel with which to crush differing views. The Planned Parenthood prosecution of David Daleiden and a colleague in Texas was a particularly egregious example of this form of authoritarianism.

Now, having served its purposes — and with a paucity of evidence to support a conviction — the criminal case has been dismissed at the request of the prosecutor. It should be a scandal that the indictment was ever handed down. The prosecution was entirely political, aimed at achieving three goals.

First, to punish David Daleiden for his undercover videos that showed the cold, crass heart of Planned Parenthood. The threat of jail, even in a clearly bad case, had to be hell for him. It would be for me.

Second, the prosecution warns that a severe price will be paid for anyone who draws political blood against the abortion industry and its supporting ideology.

Perhaps most importantly, the bogus indictment allowed the media to squawk that the allegations of selling aborted baby parts had been “discredited.” No such thing, of course. But the indictment proved the convenient hook upon which to hang that mendacious allegation.

Note, the indictment was huge news around the country. The dismissal a bare whisper. As I warned, nothing was ever going to come of this brouhaha. But it is another in a long series of tipping points.

Going forward, Daleiden will be a pro-life hero, Planned Parenthood will thrive. And the country will continue to unmoor itself from crucial moral principles with deleterious individual and societal consequences — direct and indirect, wholly predictable and utterly surprising.

Image credit: Fibonacci Blue (Flickr: Planned Parenthood in St. Paul) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Cross-posted at The Corner.