The Man Behind the Planned Parenthood Videos Is Already Satisfied

David Daleiden, a 26-year-old Catholic from California, worked for 30 months to spark a national debate on abortion.

Anti-abortion activists rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol to condemn the use in medical research of tissue samples obtained from aborted fetuses on July 28, 2015, in Austin, Texas.
Photographer: Eric Gay/AP

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By Melinda Henneberger

September 29, 2015 at 3:23 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Though public opinion on Planned Parenthood has not shifted as a result of the sting videos David Daleiden spent two and a half years making, the anti-abortion activist said in a rare phone interview last week that the results have still far exceeded his expectations.

“I’ve been floored by how much traction they’ve gotten,” Daleiden said of the tapes, which he says show illegal trafficking in baby body parts and which Planned Parenthood defends as perfectly legal tissue transfers for research. “I knew it would be big, but not 10-presidential-candidates-talking-about-it-in-the-first-24-hours big.”