Back
Placeholder Image

Gosnell—The Face of Abortion in America

Bradley Mattes   |   June 13, 2013

Among those who followed the sordid trial of the Philadelphia abortionist, the name Kermit Gosnell has become synonymous with the likes of Adolph Hitler and Jeffery Dahmer. Sadly, many Americans remain uninformed regarding what is easily the trial of the decade, perhaps the century. Why the ignorance regarding such an impactful event? It was censored by most of the mainstream media in an attempted cover-up of the abortion industry. More on that later.

Pro-abortion activists and bloggers tried to make the public believe Gosnell’s mill—dubbed the “House of Horrors” by the FBI—was a single, isolated abortionist gone rogue in an otherwise sterling network of “physician abortion providers.” However, there is considerable evidence that proves otherwise. Kermit Gosnell isn’t an exception; he’s the face of so-called safe, legal abortion.

Thanks to the 281-page grand jury report and five weeks of testimony by witnesses for the prosecution, the doors of America’s abortion mills have been flung wide open and the abortion industry exposed for all to see. If every citizen were to peer in, it would shake our nation to its core.

Due to the political decisions of two pro-abortion Pennsylvania governors—it started with a Republican and continued under a Democrat—inspections of abortion mills in the state ceased because they believed it would inhibit access to the procedure. As a result, the state’s abortion facilities hadn’t been inspected or investigated in 17 years.1 The blame for the deterioration of Gosnell’s mill rests mainly with the abortionist, but a good amount can also be laid squarely at the feet of PA officials as well as pro-abortion activists.

The FBI raided Gosnell’s abortion facility, not because of its repugnant condition, but because he was suspected of illegally selling pain prescriptions. A few minutes after entering the facility, the agents realized they had gotten more than they bargained for.
There were drugged women, moaning and lying on filthy, blood-stained beds and blankets. The smell of cat urine permeated the air. The cats, brought in to catch the rats, defecated everywhere. The remains of 47 babies were stashed in a freezer or piled in bags and boxes in the basement or elsewhere. In what appeared to be macabre trophies, FBI agents found a bookshelf lined with jars containing the severed feet of many of his small victims.

Gosnell’s unqualified staff would administer anesthesia medicines in his absence. Many of the babies were delivered live and he would then slit the back of the child’s neck with scissors and violently sever the spinal cord. One staff member testified during the trial that hundreds of babies were murdered in this gruesome manner, likened to “beheadings.”

Kermit Gosnell was also charged in the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died in 2009 from a botched abortion. She and her family had immigrated from Bhutan just months before going to Gosnell for a late-term abortion. Gosnell is charged with giving Mongar an overdose of Demerol, a drug eschewed by many physicians because of its dangerous complications.2 This was the second woman who died under Gosnell’s care.

Prosecutors wanted to take the jury on a tour through Gosnell’s facility, but the deteriorated condition of the building rendered it unsafe to enter. Posts had been placed on the third floor to prevent the ceiling from caving in. Decay was evident throughout the building. Instead of the tour, prosecutors brought the filthy equipment and furnishings into the courtroom to demonstrate to the jury the appalling condition of the abortion mill. Those who saw these horrifying items said pictures could not do them justice.

Gosnell had applied to become a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) in 2009, but was denied because of the appalling conditions in the mill.3 However, NAF did not report these conditions to PA health officials. Nor did they stop Gosnell from performing abortions part-time at a NAF affiliated mill in Delaware. This is particularly ironic because their mission is “to ensure safe, legal, and accessible abortion care, which promotes health and justice for women.” By not reporting Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’ to officials, NAF ensured anything but safe, legal abortion for the many vulnerable mostly minority women who were poor. If they had, it’s likely that Karnamaya Mongar would be alive today.

NAF wasn’t the only one to attempt to distance themselves from Gosnell. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, boldly declared, “…we have the highest-quality staff. We have medical doctors from the most prestigious medical schools. Our doors are open to anyone to come and visit and see exactly what we do.”

Since Ms. Richards extended the invitation, millions of Americans whose tax dollars are being used to fund this giant of the abortion industry, should accept her invitation and demand to inspect their local Planned Parenthood abortion facility. They would probably be shocked and horrified by what they see.

Since they will most likely deny you access, allow us to shine some light on what Richards calls “highest quality” staff and facilities. Further, we’ll expose the exploits of their abortionists with so-called Ivy League pedigrees.

One doesn’t have to look far for proof that Planned Parenthood provides Gosnell-like conditions that are more akin to a back-alley abortion establishment. The Wilmington, Delaware, Planned Parenthood fired its abortionist and suspended surgical abortions. It wasn’t out of concern for women’s health, but because two of their nurses quit and went public after getting no results from Planned Parenthood. Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis actually feared losing their licenses if they continued to work there.
They told WPVI-TV that women received a “meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.” The abortionist refused to wear gloves, the procedure tables were left bloody when used by the next patient. Surgical instruments weren’t cleaned before reuse. State laws requiring parental consent were violated, and untrained staff performed key duties.

Since the beginning of the year, five women have been rushed to the hospital from the Delaware facility. Mitchell-Werbrich said, “I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was.”

She also witnessed the abortionist, Timothy Liveright, physically strike a woman patient on her thigh. Another patient also made a written statement that he punched her in the stomach.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that a Chicago area Planned Parenthood botched an abortion that killed Tonya Reaves.4 An autopsy report later revealed Tonya may have survived if Planned Parenthood wouldn’t have waited for over five hours to transport her to a hospital.

A St. Paul, Minnesota, Planned Parenthood called an ambulance to rush one of its patients to the hospital. At the same time, they were sending out requests for supporters to help them stop legislation that would require them to provide the same level of medical service as other out-patient surgical centers.5

It appears that Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania CEO, Dayle Steinberg, lied about not being aware of Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’. WHYY radio reported in February 2010 that she denied knowing of the problems.6 However, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on April 18, 2013 that Steinberg admitted patients had reported atrocities to them but they had done nothing.7

These Gosnell-style abuses permeate the abortion industry. In an article, USA Today contributor Kirsten Powers—not known for her pro-life leanings—wrote a column titled Gosnell’s Abortion Atrocities No ‘Aberration’.8 She cited some examples of proof why Gosnell wasn’t an exception:

“Last week, Ohio officials shut down an abortion clinic after inspectors found that a medical assistant administered narcotics to five patients, that narcotics and powerful sedatives weren’t properly accounted for, that pharmacy licenses had expired and that four staff members hadn’t been screened for a communicable disease.

“Last month, Maryland officials shut down three abortion clinics, two for failings in their equipment and training to deal with life-threatening complications.

“Last year, an Associated Press investigation found that Illinois hadn’t inspected some abortion clinics for 10 to 15 years. After state health officials reinvigorated their clinic inspections in the wake of Gosnell, inspectors closed two clinics, including one fined for ‘failure to perform CPR on a patient who died after a procedure’ according to AP.”

These are just a few recent examples. Details on all the abortionists and their facilities that have endangered, maimed or killed women would fill this entire publication many times over.

The facts of this trial have all the ingredients for sensationalized news headlines. Gosnell’s trial should have appeared on the front page of every news publication and heard by all TV and radio outlets. So why are most Americans unaware of the Kermit Gosnell trial? There’s been a near universal cover-up of the abortion industry by major media outlets fearing these facts would diminish support for abortion-on-demand. In other words, the secular media is so dedicated to abortion rights, they will prostitute their ethics to prop up an eroding political ideal.

Perhaps Marc Lamont Hill, during a HuffPost Live segment, said it best. “For what it’s worth, I do think that those of us on the Left have made a decision not to cover this trial because we worry that it’ll compromise abortion rights. Whether you agree with abortion or not, I do think there’s a direct connection between the media’s failure to cover this and our own political commitments on the Left.”9

Other reporters tried unsuccessfully to excuse their inaction. Sarah Kliff, a Washington Post health-policy reporter, responded, “I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime…”10 To which Robert VerBruggen with the National Review, noted the obvious hypocrisy. “Makes sense. Similarly, national gun-policy people do not cover local crime in places like Aurora or Newtown.”11

The silence of the media didn’t change until pro-lifers participated in a “tweetfest” which generated a whopping 166,800 tweets in just twelve hours. It shamed several media outlets to finally—yet in limited fashion—report on the trial. A surprisingly substantial and fair report was done by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on his show 360.

The Obama administration has had nothing to say about Gosnell’s gruesome practices because the President’s own position on infanticide is closer to Kermit Gosnell’s than the American public. As a State Senator, Mr. Obama on several occasions, beginning in 2004, and as recently as August 13, 2008, opposed the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act that would require life-saving treatment to babies who survive late-term abortions.12

It’s a tragic irony. Had Pennsylvania authorities not looked the other way four decades earlier, the ‘House of Horrors’ would never have become a reality. Harvey Karman, a man with no medical training who already had served time in prison for performing illegal abortions, teamed up with Gosnell.13 They bused 15 poor women from Chicago to Philadelphia on Mother’s Day 1972. All were in their second trimester of pregnancy. Without their knowledge, they were used as guinea pigs to test Karman’s sadistic abortion tool called the “super coil.” It was described as essentially a ball of plastic razors that were coated in gel. As the woman’s body temperature melted the gel, the razors were supposed to spring open and cut up the baby.

Karman had previously tried his hazardous tool on unsuspecting women in Bangladesh with the help of the Inter-national Planned Parenthood Federation. The experiment was a disaster in both situations. In Philadelphia most of the 15 women suffered serious complications, with one needing a hysterectomy. To this day it’s referred to as the Mother’s Day Massacre.

On May 13, 2013, Kermit Gosnell was convicted by a jury of his peers for his most recent unspeakable crimes against humanity. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of three of the four babies. There were very likely hundreds more, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of additional deaths.

He was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient, Karnamaya Mongar, who was given an overdose of drugs during her abortion.

Gosnell was judged guilty of one count of infanticide, one count of racketeering, five counts of conspiracy, and 21 counts of illegal late-term abortions—doing them past the 24-week limit allowed by Pennsylvania law. He was convicted on 211 counts of violating a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period before performing an abortion. In total, he was convicted of 243 crimes.14,15 Gosnell received three life sentences with no chance of parole.

Even though Gosnell was not on trial for the tens of thousands of babies he killed, justice was served for all of them, because the jury’s verdict will ensure that he can no longer harm any more babies or their mothers.

Tragically, the deaths and trauma caused by Kermit Gosnell and his staff were unwarranted and unnecessary had health and government officials done their job. In the process, it has exposed the underbelly of the abortion industry, revealing that Gosnell wasn’t the exception but the norm for what pro-abortion activists call safe and legal abortion. Roe, in a cruel hoax on society, has simply moved the door of the back-alley abortion mill to the street out front. To date, over 55 million babies have been sacrificed on the altar of “choice” while countless women have been physically maimed or killed. It’s time to stop the madness.

1 Back-Alley Abortion Never Ended, James Taranto WSJ US Ed. 4/19/13 p. A15

2 http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/state-inspector-women-were-drugged-left-unmonitored-for-hours-at-gosnells-c/

3 http://prochoice.org/news/releases/20110121.html

4 http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/13957308-452/death-of-tonya-reaves-after-an-abortion-is-a-reminder-that-abortions-carry-risks.html

5 http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/23/planned-parenthood-clinic-botches-abortion-ambulance-called/

6 http://whyy.org/cms/news/health-science/2010/02/24/probe-finds-deplorable-and-unsanitary-clinic-conditions/31594

7 http://articles.philly.com/2013-0418/news/38619220_1_gosnell-trial-abortion-issue-kermit-gosnell

8 http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/04/29/gosnells-abortion-atrocities-no-aberration-column/2122235/

9 http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/kermit-gosnell- abortion-media-blackout-conservative-liberal-left right/516c4c22fe34442d7f000710

10 http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/346983/life-ruins-and-dangers-euphemistic-addictions

11 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/04/a-wapo-reporter-explains-her-personal-gosnell-blackout/

12 http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/ObamaBornAliveAssertionsFacts.pdf

13 Back-Alley Abortion Never Ended, James Taranto WSJ US Ed. 4/19/13 p. A15

14 http://articles.philly.com/2013-05-15/news/39258136_1_abortion-doctor-abortion-patient-karnamaya-mongar-illegal-late-term-abortions

15 http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130513/NEWS01/305130056/Gosnell-guilty-three-counts-first-degree-murder

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Latest News

From our articles & videos

View all

March 27, 2024

The Supreme Court Hears Chemical Abortion Challenge

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories, L.L.C. v....

Read More

March 26, 2024

SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments on Chemical Abortion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 26, 2024| Link Contact: Victor Nieves, vnieves@lifeissues.org 513-719-5813 SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments on Chemical Abortion Today...

Read More

March 21, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Today is World Down Syndrome Day. The date was selected because Down syndrome occurs when an extra 3rd of the...

Read More