Descriptions of a Philadelphia abortion clinic managed by Dr. Kermit Gosnell sound more like scenes from a horror movie than those of a medical clinic.
Yet abortion opponents are not completely optimistic about the case’s effect on the overall fight for unborn lives, and the mainstream media may be part of the problem, they say.
Recently, 72-year-old Gosnell, who is a family doctor not an OB/GYN, was convicted of “first degree murder, involuntary manslaughter (for the death of one of his female patients), conspiracy, performing abortions at 24 or more weeks and other related charges.” He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.
In a press release describing the conditions of Gosnell’s West Philadelphia medical facility, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell a “monster” and his practices “gruesome” and “heinous.” (See story, this page.)
“I have seen a lot of senseless and cruel acts as the District Attorney of Philadelphia, but this case is arguably the most gruesome,” Williams stated. “Any doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies, who would survive with proper medical attention, is a murderer and a monster. … This doctor’s illegal purposeful actions against the smallest and most vulnerable human beings born alive were properly called murder by our citizens.”
Birmingham attorney Eric Johnston characterized Gosnell’s sentencing as “an exceptional ruling (that) you don’t see very often,” but he feels the general media’s lack of coverage of the situation limits the amount of attention it could draw to the pro-life cause.
“You would think that the mainstream media would report it, but it’s very little coverage of it,” Johnston told The Alabama Baptist. “What those convictions mean is recognition that something is wrong in an abortion clinic — that it’s a bad place, that children are being killed there.
“The news media is not going to make a big deal out of it because they are sympathetic to the abortion cause. … If a gunman goes into a school and kills children, they will always tell you how many children are killed … They always look for that sympathy factor in the deaths of children. Yet when it comes to abortion, they turn away from it and turn their backs on the sympathy of it.”
According to FoxNews.com, authorities were originally drawn to Gosnell’s abortion clinic while investigating his “alleged prescription drug trafficking,” which Williams said included the “selling thousands of prescriptions to oxycontin and other narcotics.”
A Baptist Press report notes, “The babies involved in the first-degree murder charges were only some of hundreds at least six months into gestation who were killed outside the womb after induced delivery at Gosnell’s clinic, according to a 281-page grand jury report in 2011. Gosnell destroyed records for the others, the grand jury reported.”
After his sentencing, many pro-life leaders announced their appreciation of the verdict.
“Care Net rejoices at the outcome of Gosnell’s murder trial,” Care Net President and CEO Roland Warren said in a news release. “A guilty verdict is a small step to ensuring justice for lives lost to abortion. However, the work we do is far from over. There [are] still an estimated 3,500 lives lost every day to abortion in our nation, and abortionists like Gosnell are not an exception in the abortion industry.”
Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research and director of the Research Institute of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he and others can breathe easier after Gosnell’s conviction.
“I can understand the disgust that most Americans feel toward this man,” he said. “I share it. Yet people like this were bound to emerge from the carnage of our abortion culture. We shouldn’t be surprised that some of those who can do the unspeakable to a human being inside the womb would have no moral qualms over doing the same thing outside the womb.
“The abortion culture has subjugated the unborn to the interests of their mothers. If the mother doesn’t want her baby, an abortionist like Kermit Gosnell feels no different about that baby before or after birth.”
Johnston agreed. “What difference does it make to one of those abortionists if they kill a baby inside the womb or outside the womb?” he asked. “It’s neither here nor there. … They figure as long as it’s inside the mother they can kill it with impunity.”
Johnston believes this case should cause other cities with abortion clinics to look into those practices.
“It (this case) reveals what goes on in an abortion clinic and what has gone on there for years,” he said. “We’ve had incidents like that in Alabama, and when they happen they are not reported by the local media.
“When the public doesn’t get the information, [the case] doesn’t have the impact it ought to have,” he said. “If … civilized people (looked at this case) objectively, they would say, ‘If it happened there and we have had problems with women being injured in the past, isn’t that enough to cause law enforcement to take a look at those places?’”
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Horrors discovered inside Gosnell’s clinic
A year long grand jury investigation revealed that, for over two decades, government health and licensing officials had received repeated reports about Gosnell’s dangerous practices. No action was ever taken, however, even after the agencies learned that women had died during routine abortions under Gosnell’s care.
Gosnell, a family practitioner who was never certified as an OB/GYN, operated the clinic for years primarily treating lower income, minority women. Along with performing abortions beyond the legal 24 weeks time, he also is accused of delivering and then killing healthy, viable babies; using a sliding pay scale to administer anesthesia; re-using unsanitary instruments; performing procedures in filthy rooms — some of the rooms had litter boxes and animals present at the time of the operations; and allowing unlicensed employees to perform operations and administer anesthesia.”
Source: Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, http://phillyda.wordpress.com
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