Feb 1, 2016 4 min read

I don’t have anything against Texas. I just try not to go there.

Recent developments down in Houston, though, have given me a reason to rethink my antipathy for that state.

The district attorney down in Houston, Devon Anderson, has decided to clear Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing after she’d convened a two-week grand jury.

Anderson, by the way, is a Republican who was originally appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, and she boasted of being a “proud, pro-life Texas mother of two,” during her election campaign in 2014.

She’d called the grand jury at the request of Texas’ Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Clearing Planned Parenthood of charges that it sells baby parts was no whitewash at the hands of liberal Democrats.

Last year, when the Irvine, California-based group of anti-abortionists, Center for Medical Progress, starting releasing videos it claimed was proof that Planned Parenthood engaged in the highly illegal practice of selling fetuses for profit – Republicans everywhere saw an opening.

Carly Fiorina gave an Oscar worthy performance at the Republican debate on Sept. 17.

She claimed she’d seen one of the videos that showed “a fully formed fetus on the table its heart beating its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

There were immediate questions about that claim, since the videos had been heavily edited and Planned Parenthood vehemently denied that nothing like her claim had ever existed at one of their clinics.

But the die, as they say, was cast.

There were congressional hearings formed; there were a slew of investigations staged, and Ted Cruz, a man who shrinks from moderation – took to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

“These videos show senior officials from Planned Parenthood laughing, sipping chardonnay and callously, heartlessly selling the body parts of unborn children,” Cruz claimed, after a crazed gunman had shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

Robert Lewis Dear, Jr., had killed a police officer and two civilians, while he injured nine other people in late November.

What’s worse, he’d obviously been listening to Republicans rail against Planned Parenthood, and the alleged sale of unborn children.

Why else would he tell the Colorado police, upon his arrest, “No more baby parts?”

Undaunted by their own careless rhetoric that just may have led to violence, Republicans, especially presidential candidates, persisted in claiming they’d defund Planned Parenthood – no matter how unprovable the wild claims of a group hardly anybody had ever heard of – except for members of the group.

Earlier this month, the Republican-led Congress passed a bill that stripped funding for Planned Parenthood, and, I might add, it repealed Obamacare.

That was nothing more than showbiz.

President Obama, as was expected, vetoed it.

Planned Parenthood had escaped a serious challenge that had arisen from the handy-work of “citizen journalists,” who’d apparently fudged its “evidence.”

I used the word “apparently” in the sentence above.

That Harris County District Attorney made an announcement last week, that allows me to remove the word “apparently” from that sentence.

The “Center for Medical Progress,” did fudge its evidence.

Not only that, its members were indicted on felony charges. First, they allegedly showed Planned Parenthood a fake driver’s license when they entered their clinic.

And second, they tried, but failed, to purchase human organs.

If you’re a Republican running for president, and if you’ve built your campaign on clear falsehoods, it doesn’t matter what a grand jury says.

Carly Fiorina’s response? “Here’s what I know: Planned Parenthood has been trafficking in body parts. Planned Parenthood has been altering late-term abortion techniques to this specific purpose of harvesting body parts,” she told CNN.

Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, won’t be deterred by phony videos or facts.

He immediately said, “The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue.”

It’s ironic that Abbott vows to “protect life.”

He’s the governor of a state that’s the nation’s leader when it comes to executions – 523 since 1976.

Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net