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Loading...Doctor Who Performed Barbaric Illegal Abortions Indicted for Murder
Kermit Gosnell, a doctor whose West Philadelphia abortion clinic was allegedly referred to as a “house of horrors,” was charged with 8 counts of murder in what prosecutors called a “complete regulatory collapse.” Among other atrocities, he was accused of delivering seven babies and then killing them with scissors. The grand jury report contains 300-pages of what the AP called “stomach-turning” details about conditions at the clinic, which catered mostly to poor and minority women. At least two women died as a result of the procedures. Gosnell’s wife and nine of his employees have also been charged.
Gosnell apparently made millions of dollars over his thirty-year career, by performing late-term abortions, which are very difficult to access. Abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy is illegal in Pennsylvania, and most doctors won’t perform abortions after 20 weeks because of the risks. This did not stop Gosnell, who typically “induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord.”
Women would come from all over the state and region for these horrible procedures, largely because they had no better options, although women from the suburbs were allegedly given slightly better treatment because Gosnell believed that they were more likely to file complaints. Authorities say that the clinic took in $10,000 – $15,000 a day.
None of the employees other than Gosnell had any kind of medical background, and one was a high school student. When the clinic was raided, prosecutors say the “place reeked of cat urine because of the animals that were allowed to roam freely, furniture and blankets were stained with blood, instruments were not properly sterilized, and disposable medical supplies were used over and over.”
State regulators repeatedly ignored complaints about Gosnell and the 46 lawsuits filed against him. The story is horrible on two levels: first because the state did not inspect the clinic at all after 1993 because of a “pro abortion rights attitude,” although being pro-choice does not mean that the state should not conduct inspections or make sure that abortions are being performed in safe and sanitary conditions.
But it’s also horrifying because it illustrates the dramatic need for safe, legal and accessible abortions, even late in pregnancies. As Amie Newman writes for RHRealityCheck,
“Most of the women who visited Dr. Gosnell would not have chosen a center like his if they had other options, or if they knew they had other options, of course. It’s why making abortion care more difficult to access – through state laws which prohibit abortion coverage in the new state exchanges to laws which make abortion care illegal for any number of reasons – can be a deadly decision. Women do not stop needing or making the decision to have an abortion because we make abortion increasingly more difficult to access. They just end up at centers like the one run by Dr. Gosnell and his staff.”
Most abortion clinics are safe and sanitary – Gosnell’s is a grisly exception. But this story is yet another reminder of what can happen when abortion is difficult to access, particularly for disadvantaged women. And the fact that the state allowed this clinic to stay open for so long demonstrates a blatant disregard for women’s health and safety.
Read more: abortion, illegal abortion, indictment, late term abortion, murder, philadelphia, pro-choice, pro-life, womens rights
Photo from alexandralee.
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193 comments
+ add your ownShades of Dr. Mengele....
Glad he and his staff are going to pay for their crimes. Who in the PA state system is going to pay for their crime of allowing this "clinic" to stay open? No inspection since 1997?
Safe, legal and accessible abortions are a woman's right under law. When late-term abortions are needed, and they are, they must be done in sterile environments with qualified doctors.
As usual, Charles, you speak with intelligence and eloquently. Now that the G.O.P. House has ceased funding for Planned Parenthood, this problem is going to increase. Making abortion available and legal for every woman should be the goal, and when it's not, it's "shops of horror" such as described in this article that result.
http://liveaction.org/blog/planned-parenthood-aids-sex-ring/
Gloria, all late term abortions are performed for only 2 reasons: either the life of the mother is at extreme risk (she will die, if the pregnancy continues), or the fetus has already died or has very little chance of survival outside the uterus. (Has some kind of fatal defect.) No one waits until the 7th month of pregnancy to decide to have an abortion on a whim. But I agree, if it's the first case (mother's life or health), and the fetus is viable, then every attempt should be made to save the life of the child, that does not endanger the woman.
Please no late abortion!!! but I think why would you like to kill your child...
Right after you had yours, Gene.
@Charles, I am sure you know of what you speak. When did you have your abortion at Dr. Tiller's office?
@Gene W: "Why is this 'Dr' bad but Dr. Tiller was a great guy. They both killed late term babies and I would bet they both at one time or another killed a viable fetus outside of the womb."
This doctor displayed a disregard for the well-being of the women he performed his services on. Dr. Tiller didn't. No one ever charged that Dr. Tiller's "place reeked of cat urine because of the animals that were allowed to roam freely, furniture and blankets were stained with blood, instruments were not properly sterilized, and disposable medical supplies were used over and over." And no one ever asserted that Dr. Tiller killed any fetuses who could have survived outside of the uterus, like these people did with this doctor. That's why.
Why is this "Dr" bad but Dr. Tiller was a great guy. They both killed late term babies and I would bet they both at one time or another killed a viable fetus outside of the womb.
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