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Four years since abortionist Kermit Gosnell convicted of three counts of first-degree murder

May 19, 2017

By Dave Andrusko

As we note elsewhere today, it is less than six weeks until the opening of the annual NRL Convention, to be held this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin June 29-July 1. Among the great speakers, NRL is excited that Ann McElhinney, the producer of Gosnell the Movie and co-author of the New York Times Best Seller Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, will be speaking at the Thursday evening General Session. Ann will be on hand to introduce a special showing of Gosnell the Movie on Friday evening, June 30. (For more information about the convention, go to www.nrlconvention.com.)

It’s odd that given how many, many posts I wrote about Kermit Gosnell, I had entirely forgotten until Nora Sullivan reminded us this week that last Saturday marked four years since the West Philadelphia abortionist was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and a bevy of other lesser charges.

Very few people realize that in December of 2013, Gosnell was also convicted of prescribing and dispensing narcotics from June 2008 until February 2010. Until he finally pled guilty, Gosnell vigorously contested those drug charges—charges that he made a fortune writing bogus prescriptions for thousands of OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax pills, on top of the fortune he made performing late, late abortions almost entirely on poor women of color.

Why is that second wave of charges even worth mentioning? There are several reasons. First, Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society was raided in 2010 not because of anything related to abortion. The discovery that Gosnell was running a “Baby Charnel House” was an almost accidental byproduct of a probe into a huge business in illegal drugs.

When they raided his abortion clinic authorities were looking for evidence that Gosnell was selling what turned out to be massive amounts of pills which he was illegally prescribing. Authorities in Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania were so cavalier, so indifferent to even minimally regulating abortion clinics that Gosnell could murder three late-term babies whom he delivered alive and then slit their spinal cords (there were no doubt hundreds more, but Gosnell destroyed the records) that no one whose job it was to keep an eye out for butchers like Gosnell was any the wiser.

Second, almost everyone knows of George Santayana’s famous admonition, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

However, in this context, something that Winston Churchill said is even more pertinent. “Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

As the Grand Jury that investigated Gosnell made clear in its scorching report, authorities in Pennsylvania were guilty of all these offenses–and nothing changed at all until the fallout from the Gosnell trial.

But it was not just the weaknesses of intellect and will and nerve Churchill enumerated that allowed Gosnell to flourish: From the Grand Jury’s report

“Gosnell routinely performed abortions beyond the 24-week limit. He was ruthless in severing the spinal cords of viable babies outside their mothers’ wombs. This conduct clearly constitutes prosecutable criminal behavior. In order for district attorneys to be able to prosecute, however, the crimes must first be detected. This is DOH’s [Department of Health’s] job – to ensure that violations of Pennsylvania health care laws are detected. Its inspectors must review files as part of their inspections. They must look at ultrasound tests and pathology reports on second-trimester fetuses. They must make sure that informed and parental consent forms have been signed and that abortions have been reported to DOH. Instead, Pennsylvania officials have created what amounts to an honor system, a system conspicuously lacking in regulatory oversight or enforcement.”

Yes, you read that right. The DOH established an “honor system,” otherwise known as an egregious failure to do its job: monitor and inspect abortion clinics. In its utter determination not to be “putting a barrier up to women,” the abysmal failure of the entire regulatory bureaucracy meant not only that the law prohibiting abortions after 24 weeks was rendered null and void but babies born alive were executed.

There probably are no other abortionists who are as cravenly indifferent to their patients’ lives as Gosnell. But you would have to work for Planned Parenthood and NARAL to believe there are not clinic abuses galore taking place even as I write this post.

Why do the Abortion Industry and the politicians it has in its pocket fight abortion clinic regulation tooth and nail? Of course, because abortion is safe, safe, safe–just take PPFA’s word for it– requiring that abortion clinics meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers is redundant and unneeded.

But what if a bill is proposed to protect women by ensuring abortion facilities follow their own industry standards (Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation have their own clinical policy standards for abortion facilities seeking industry membership or accreditation)? That happened in Minnesota and the governor vetoed it!

We must never, ever forgot Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors.” Kudos and thanks to Ann McElhinney and her husband Phelim McAleer for ensuring that we won’t.

Editor’s note. If you want to peruse stories all day long, go directly to nationalrighttolifenews.org and/or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/daveha. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Categories: Gosnell
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