A Philadelphia abortion doctor, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, has been arrested and charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors. Dr. Gosnell delivered abortions to minorities and poor women in what has been dubbed a “house of horrors” clinic.
The Blaze reports:
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said. Nine of Gosnell’s employees were also charged.
According to Williams, Dr. Gosnell “induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, [and] eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord.”
Most of the patients were unaware that their babies were born alive and then murdered. Many of the women were told that they were 24 weeks pregnant, even when they were further along.
What’s worse is that Dr. Gosnell never completed his residency in obstetrics-gynecology and is therefore not board certified. He’s a family practice physician.
“He does not know how to do an abortion. He’s not board certified,” said Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore. “Once he got them there, he saw dollar signs and did abortions that other people wouldn’t do.”
In addition to the horrific murders that took place at the hands of Dr. Gosnell, the doctor’s patients were subjected to what The Blaze calls “squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society.” The prosecutor also indicates that much of Gosnell’s staff, including those who administered drugs to patients, was untrained. None of the staff members had undergone medical training. In fact, Gosnell employed a high school student to perform intravenous anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics.
Gosnell reportedly performed dozens of abortions on a daily basis and worked mostly overnight hours.
Prosecutors were called in to investigate the clinic early last year when patients began to complain about drug-related injuries. Upon inspection, authorities determined the clinic to be a “house of horrors.”
The Blaze explains, “Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses ‘were scattered throughout the building,’ Williams said. ‘There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose.’”
The 300-page grand jury report states, “By day it was a prescription mill; by night it was an abortion mill.”
Following the raid, the clinic was immediately shut down and Gosnell’s medical license was suspended. Gosnell now faces murder charges, along with four other members of his staff. Five additional staff members are being charged with controlled drug violations.
Gosnell is being defended by William J. Brennan, who remarked, “Obviously, these allegations are very, very serious.”
Kamamaya Mongar, the female whose death is one of the charges against Gosnell, was an otherwise healthy 41-year old. She was administered an overdose of Demerol, per Gasnell’s instructions to keep her sedated until he arrived at the clinic.
There are currently 45 malpractice suits pending against the physician, including one that involves the death of a 22-year old woman who died as a result of sepsis and a perforated uterus in 2000. A number of suits involve perforated uteruses, often without the patients being aware that it happened until later.
Dr. Gosnell charged $325 for first-trimester abortions, and as much as $3,000 for abortions up to 30 weeks.
In the state of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Gosnell performed his violent procedures, abortions are legal up to 24 weeks.
According to the report, “Pennsylvania is not a third-world country. There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago. But none of them did.”
Women would come from far and wide to receive Dr. Gosnell’s illegal abortions. Prosecutors indicate that he would perform abortions on white women in far cleaner facilities than minority women, asserting that white women were more apt to complain.
Williams said, “People knew near and far that if you needed a late-term abortion you could go see Dr. Gosnell.”
Photo: This Feb. 23, 2010 file photo shows abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia: AP Images
