Two pro-life activists who secretly recorded Planned Parenthood conversations about foetal tissue must each face more than a dozen criminal charges.

California's new Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 counts apiece on Tuesday against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center of Medical Progress, saying the videos showing discussions of foetal tissue were made without the consent of the people in them in violation of state law.

Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state "will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations."