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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Dos Equis on January 19, 2011, 02:25:55 PM
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Reminds me of "Tiller the Baby Killer." These were essentially late term abortions. :-\
Philadelphia doctor accused of murdering patient, newborns
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 19, 2011
(CNN) -- A Philadelphia physician, Kermitt Gosnell, was charged Wednesday with murder and other offenses for allegedly causing the death of one of his female patients and killing viable babies in illegal, late term abortions, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said.
The babies were born alive in the sixth, seventh and eighth months of pregnancy, but their spinal cords were allegedly severed with scissors, Williams said in a statement.
Nine other people who worked in the west Philadelphia medical office, including Gosnell's wife and sister-in-law, were also charged, Williams said. The practice, called the Women's Medical Society, served mostly low-income minority women for years, he said.
Williams' statement provided a grisly scenario of the shuttered abortion clinic: A search of the office last year by authorities found bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses scattered throughout the building. Jars contained the severed feet of babies and lined a shelf. Furniture and equipment was blood-stained, dusty and broken.
Gosnell, 69, is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist, Williams said.
Originally, Williams said, the clinic used another doctor as a consultant so it could receive a license to perform abortions in 1979.
Two primary state agencies, the Department of Health and the Department of State, have oversight, Williams said Wednesday at a news conference.
But a grand jury investigation found that health and licensing officials had received repeated reports about Gosnell's dangerous practices for two decades, but no action was ever taken, even after the agencies learned that women had died during routine abortions under Gosnell's care, Williams said in a statement.
"What the [grand] jury found most troubling is that neither of those agencies took the time to investigate, to observe, to view, to go to the clinic itself since 1993," Williams said in comments during the news conference.
"I am aware that abortion is a hot-button topic," Williams said in a statement. "But as District Attorney, my job is to carry out the law. A doctor who knowingly and systematically mistreats female patients, to the point that one of them dies in his so-called care, commits murder under the law.
"A doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies, who would survive with proper medical attention, is committing murder under the law," Williams added.
Gosnell is also accused of reusing unsanitary instruments; performing procedures in filthy rooms, including some having litter boxes and animals present during operations; and allowing unlicensed employees to perform operations and administer anesthesia, including a teenage high school student, Williams said in a statement.
Gosnell's wife, Pearl, 49, of Philadelphia is also facing charges of providing an abortion at 24 or more weeks, conspiracy and other related charges, Williams said in the statement. She has no medical license and is accused of performing illegal abortions at the clinic, Williams said.
Elizabeth Hampton, 51, of Philadelphia, who is Gosnell's sister-in-law, is facing hindering prosecution, perjury, false swearing and obstructing administration of law charges.
Law enforcement officers came upon "the medical abuses" while investigating tips that the doctor had been illegally selling thousands of prescriptions for OxyContin and other narcotics to "patients" that he never examined, Williams' statement said.
The doctor himself was seldom present, Williams' statement charged. In his absence, untrained, unsupervised workers, including the teenage girl, routinely injected sedatives into women undergoing illegal late-term abortions, Williams' statement alleged.
Among numerous charges, Gosnell is accused of third-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, Williams said.
Mongar died on November 20, 2009, when she was overdosed with anesthetics prescribed by Gosnell, Williams said.
Gosnell is also facing seven murder charges in the deaths of infants allegedly killed after being born viable and alive during the sixth, seventh and eighth months of pregnancy in illegal, late term abortions, Williams said.
Gosnell is also charged with infanticide, conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks of pregnancy, corpse abuse, theft, corruption of minors, solicitation and other related offenses, Williams said in the statement.
Seven other employees at the clinic were also charged, according to the statement:
Lynda Williams, 42, of Wilmington, Delaware, is also charged with third-degree murder in Mongar's death. Williams is accused of being an unlicensed worker who routinely performed illegal operations and administered anesthesia. She is also facing murder charges for the death of a viable baby born alive, abortion at 24 or more weeks and other related offenses.
Sherry West, 51, of Newark, Delaware, is charged with third-degree murder. She was allegedly an unlicensed worker at the clinic who routinely performed illegal operations and administered anesthesia. She is also facing a charge of providing an abortion at 24 or more weeks and other related offenses.
Adrienne Moton, 33, of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, is charged with murder in the death of a viable baby born alive. She was allegedly an unlicensed worker at the clinic who routinely and illegally administered anesthesia to patients.
Steven Massof, 48, of Pittsburgh, is facing murder charges for the deaths of two viable babies born alive. Massof, a medical school graduate without a license or any certification, allegedly worked as a doctor at the clinic. He is also facing conspiracy and other related charges.
Eileen O'Neill, 54, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is a medical school graduate who allegedly worked as a doctor at the clinic without a license or certification. She is facing theft by deception, conspiracy, perjury and false swearing charges.
Tina Baldwin, 45, of Philadelphia, is facing racketeering, conspiracy and corruption of a minor charges. She was allegedly an unlicensed worker at the clinic who illegally administered anesthesia to patients and allowed her 15-year-old daughter to administer anesthesia to patients as well.
Office manager Maddline Joe, 53, of Philadelphia, is charged with conspiracy.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/19/pennsylvania.abortion.doctor/index.html?hpt=T1
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Except this is nothing like Tiller as he didn't do anything illegal
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I hope ths asshole get hit but a fast moving train.
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Except this is nothing like Tiller as he didn't do anything illegal
???
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???
What did he do that was illegal?
link to info about what crimes he was convicted of
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Revolting post straw.
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Revolting post straw.
in straw mans world, legality = morality...
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I was thinking the same thing. Disgusting and revolting.
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Revolting post straw.
What did Tiller do that was illegal?
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What did Tiller do that was illegal?
does your sense of morality come from the law straw?
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does your sense of morality come from the law straw?
When did I mention morality
Bum said this guy reminds him of Tiller
I said this guy is nothing like Tiller and that Tiller didn't break any laws
If you know of some crime that Tiller was convicted of then let's hear it
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When did I mention morality
Bum said this guy reminds him of Tiller
I said this guy is nothing like Tiller and that Tiller didn't break any laws
If you know of some crime that Tiller was convicted of then let's hear it
lol color me shocked you didnt answer the question...
its a simple question straw, yes or no...
im not talking about tiller or this guy, im talking about you
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I'm very pro choice. BUT not when the unborn child is 6 to 9 months along..HANG THE BASTARD, then get some rusty tweezers and peel his balls off
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lol color me shocked you didnt answer the question...
its a simple question straw, yes or no...
im not talking about tiller or this guy, im talking about you
Bum said this guy was like Tiller
I said this guy is not like Tiller and that Tiller did not break any laws
That's all I said and no one who has criticised my statement has shown any link to laws that Tiller broke
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Bum said this guy was like Tiller
I said this guy is not like Tiller and that Tiller did not break any laws
That's all I said and no one who has criticised my statement has shown any link to laws that Tiller broke
ANSWER THE FUKING QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
does your sense of morality come from the law?
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ANSWER THE FUKING QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
does your sense of morality come from the law?
calm down spaz
my only reason in posting on this thread was to point out that this person/people are nothing like Tiller
Tiller performed legal abortions
this person is accused of performing illegal abortions, along with a whole bunch of other very disturbing accusations.
you're the one who went off on a tangent about legality and morality
If that's something that interests you then start a thread about it and if I find it interesting maybe I'll decide to post
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::) ::) ::)
goodness gracious just answer the question man
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Bum said this guy was like Tiller
Uh no, you said that. He merely noted that it reminded him of Tiller because of the late term abortions.
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::) ::) ::)
goodness gracious just answer the question man
morals are personal
laws are not
some people think dancing is immoral
now answer my question
why do you make such stupid posts, completely off the topic at hand and unrelated to any comment I made on this thread?
in straw mans world, legality = morality...
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Uh no, you said that. He merely noted that it reminded him of Tiller because of the late term abortions.
I know and I pointed at that this guy is accused of many different things, including illegal late term abortions
Tiller performed legal abortions and didn't do (or not to my knowledge) any of the other things that this guy is accused of doing
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morals are personal
laws are not
some people think dancing is immoral
now answer my question
why do you make such stupid posts, completely off the topic at hand and unrelated to any comment I made on this thread?
yes morals are personal but that doesnt mean TO YOU PERSONALLY that they dont come from the law
so please answer my question to YOU does legality mean morality?
b/c ive asked you multiple time in multiple threads and you never answer the question... ;)
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yes morals are personal but that doesnt mean TO YOU PERSONALLY that they dont come from the law
so please answer my question to YOU does legality mean morality?
b/c ive asked you multiple time in multiple threads and you never answer the question... ;)
I answered your question above
if you can't figure it out then I'll make it even easier (I thought you would want some nuance)
no, "legality does not mean morality"
can't you figure that out from what I wrote above?
now it's your turn to answer my question from above
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I answered your question above
if you can't figure it out then I'll make it even easier (I thought you would want some nuance)
no, "legality does not mean morality"
can't you figure that out from what I wrote above?
now it's your turn to answer my question from above
I could infer yes, but you could also infer that you do...
you made no mention of yourself in the previous post only a general statement about morals being personal...some ppl personally feel that morals come from the law...you didnt state whether you were one of them ;)
and i answered it b/c ive asked you that question multiple times and you never answered it...
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I know and I pointed at that this guy is accused of many different things, including illegal late term abortions
Tiller performed legal abortions and didn't do (or not to my knowledge) any of the other things that this guy is accused of doing
WTF does that have to do with you making shit up? BB didn't mention anything about the legal aspects, only that the late term abortions reminded him of Tiller. And somehow you warped that into BB claiming this guy is "like" Tiller?
Tony,
Do you feel the rights of a fetus are greater than or equal to the rights of the mom?
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WTF does that have to do with you making shit up? BB didn't mention anything about the legal aspects, only that the late term abortions reminded him of Tiller. And somehow you warped that into BB claiming this guy is "like" Tiller?
Tony,
Do you feel the rights of a fetus are greater than or equal to the rights of the mom?
where did I make something up and attribute it to Bum?
I've looked at my posts and I don't see what you're talking about
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WTF does that have to do with you making shit up? BB didn't mention anything about the legal aspects, only that the late term abortions reminded him of Tiller. And somehow you warped that into BB claiming this guy is "like" Tiller?
Tony,
Do you feel the rights of a fetus are greater than or equal to the rights of the mom?
equal id say, if the mothers health is in jeopardy(read real jeopardy) then i feel she should have the right to abort the child
other than that preventing a pregnancy is 99.999% preventable sorry own up to your actions folks, and if youre going to give the mother a choice give the father one as well...
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where did I make something up and attribute it to Bum?
Uh, right here:
Bum said this guy was like Tiller
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equal id say, if the mothers health is in jeopardy(read real jeopardy) than i feel she should have the right to abort the child.
other than that preventing a pregnancy is 99.999% preventable sorry own up to your actions folks, and if youre going to give the mother a choice give the father one as well...
I wasn't so much driving at the man/woman choice issue, but the morality of late-term abortions. I wouldn't put the fetus on equal footing with mom. To me, her rights > than the fetus.
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Uh, right here:
far enough
Bum's first post was
Reminds me of "Tiller the Baby Killer." These were essentially late term abortions. :-\
my response was
Except this is nothing like Tiller as he didn't do anything illegal
I didn't accuse Bum of anything
then I just responded to confused idiots and kept explaining exactly why the person in this story is nothing like Tiller
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I wasn't so much driving at the man/woman choice issue, but the morality of late-term abortions. I wouldn't put the fetus on equal footing with mom. To me, her rights > than the fetus.
well to me, id say i guess the mothers rights trump the childs if her heath is in jeopardy...other than that she should own up to her actions
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well to me, id say i guess the mothers rights trump the childs if her heath is in jeopardy...other than that she should own up to her actions
good for you
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good for you
thanks, i guess ???
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well to me, id say i guess the mothers rights trump the childs if her heath is in jeopardy...other than that she should own up to her actions
Should psychological considerations be factored in?
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Should psychological considerations be factored in?
factored into what?
whether this guy was like Tiller?
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Should psychological considerations be factored in?
that gets tricky, id say ideally yes but i know that would be a cop out to many ppl though
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This guy should get the death penalty imo... That was a horrific read. I understand there are actually real reasons for late term abortions, but this guy was just murdering babies.
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This guy should get the death penalty imo... That was a horrific read. I understand there are actually real reasons for late term abortions, but this guy was just murdering babies.
allegedly
and a bunch of other stuff as well
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factored into what?
whether this guy was like Tiller?
Late-term abortions
that gets tricky, id say ideally yes but i know that would be a cop out to many ppl though
I suppose that's what shrinks are trained to sort out, presumably. The problem I have with the age of the fetus argument is that medicine keeps pushing back viability. So, to me, the line keeps getting pushed back as to when an abortion is acceptable. Telling someone what they can and cannot do with their own body is just fundamentally wrong. Kinda like taking gear or anti-suicide laws - hate 'em both.
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Late-term abortions
I suppose that's what shrinks are trained to sort out, presumably. The problem I have with the age of the fetus argument is that medicine keeps pushing back viability. So, to me, the line keeps getting pushed back as to when an abortion is acceptable. Telling someone what they can and cannot do with their own body is just fundamentally wrong. Kinda like taking gear or anti-suicide laws - hate 'em both.
true but abortions effect more than just the woman...
the fetus and the man responsible also have a stake in her pregnancy, and its somewhat different as the situation they are in is 99.999% preventable
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Late-term abortions
this guy is not about late term abortions
it seems, from what I've read, that he's got multiple alleged violations of the law
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DA: West Philadelphia Abortion Doc Killed Woman, 7 Infants
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | January 19, 2011 | Inquirer Staff
An abortion doctor has been arrested and charged with the murder of a patient and seven live infants whose spines were severed with scissors at a West Philadelphia clinic that has been described as a house of horrors, officials said today.
District Attorney Seth Williams said the doctor, Kermit P. Gosnell, was charged following a grand jury investigation.
Gosnell, 69, lost his medical license last year after health officials determined his clinic posed "a clear danger to the public."
Gosnell was arrested this morning, officials said. He has maintained his innocence.
The seven infants were born alive in the 6th, 7th and 8th months of pregnancy and killed by severing their spinal cords with scissors, William said.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
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I would have no problem being on the firing squad myself for this. In fact, if they wanted me to just strngle this asshole myself with my barehands I would not think twice about it.
If they said "Here is the time and place", I would gladly show up and take thid asshole out myself.
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Uh no, you said that. He merely noted that it reminded him of Tiller because of the late term abortions.
Correct.
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Correct.
glad to hear that you don't think this guy is like Tiller
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Abortionist brutally murdered ‘hundreds’ of living newborns: clinic worker
LifeSiteNews ^ | January 20, 2011 | Kathleen Gilbert
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, January 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A massive, photograph-laden Grand Jury Report released Wednesday has detailed the bone-chilling practices of a Philadelphia abortionist, who clinic workers testified had delivered “hundreds” of living, breathing newborn children before severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks to complete the abortions.
Abortionist Kermit Gosnell was arrested Wednesday for eight counts of murder. One of the charges was for the botched-abortion death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, a Nepalese refugee. The other seven were for children who police had discovered, by examining their remains, had been born alive and then killed.
District Attorney R. Seth Williams released the 281-page report that was the basis for the murder charges against Gosnell and nine of his associates. Included in that report were photos of some of Gosnell’s victims.
In the report, the Grand Jury notes that several agencies and groups became aware of what has become known as Gosnell’s “shop of horrors,” but did nothing. They also provide extremely explicit descriptions of botched abortions, late-term abortions and infanticides rarely seen in court documents.
“Pennsylvania law requires physicians to provide customary care for living babies outside the womb. Gosnell chose instead to slit their necks and store their bodies in various household containers, as if they were trash,” stated the report.
The report provided detailed testimony from clinic staff who said that “killing large, late-term babies who had been observed breathing and moving was a regular occurrence” at the filthy clinic: one staffer said such events happened “hundreds” of times.
Another clinic worker, Tina Baldwin, told the jurors that Gosnell once joked about a baby that was writhing as he cut its neck: “that’s what you call a chicken with its head cut off.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ______
I almost wanted to throw up reading this. I would volunteer to be on the firing squad for this guy no problem.
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Squalid Abortion Clinic Escaped State Oversight
Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times
Dr. Kermit Gosnell faces eight murder charges involving abortions at his Philadelphia clinic.
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
PHILADELPHIA — For years, state health officials missed some unsettling patterns at the three-story brick abortion clinic on Lancaster Avenue.
Doctor Is Charged in Killing of Newborns (January 20, 2011) It was always open late, way past the time the pizza place next door closed at midnight. The women who emerged from it — often poor blacks and Hispanics — appeared dazed and in pain, and sometimes left in ambulances. The doctor who ran the clinic, Kermit Gosnell, had been sued at least 15 times for malpractice. Two women died while under his care.
But the dangerous practices went unnoticed, except by the women who experienced them. They were discovered entirely by accident, during a prescription drug raid by federal agents last February.
The clinic — now closed, with dead plants in its windows and old mail on its front desk — stands as a grim reminder of how degrading it was for the women who went there and how long state officials ignored their complaints.
On Wednesday, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, indicted Dr. Gosnell on eight counts of murder in the deaths of seven infants and a Bhutanese refugee who died after a late-term abortion in 2009.
A grand jury report issued on the same day offered its own theory on why so little happened for so long.
“We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color,” the report said, “and because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.”
Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, said Friday that the governor “was appalled at the inaction on the part of the Health Department and the Department of State,” the two agencies that were responsible for overseeing the clinic.
Mr. Corbett has ordered an investigation into what happened, Mr. Harley said, and was awaiting recommendations. He said he did not know whether any of the officials named in the report would be fired.
It was raw anxiety that propelled Sherry Thomas to Dr. Gosnell’s clinic in the summer of 1999. She was 38, she already had three children, and with her partner working as a machinist, she knew they could not afford the fourth child she was pregnant with. She left the problem alone for a while, fretting, and then decided to have an abortion. She was five months pregnant by the time she had saved enough to afford it.
She chose Dr. Gosnell’s clinic because that was where women she knew went. But when she was led into a waiting room, she started having second thoughts.
“It was like walking into a nightmare,” she said. “Everyone was sedated, no one was making sense. People were slumped over and waiting in line like they were going into a soup kitchen.”
The clinic was smelly, in part from a dirty turtle tank in the lobby, but also from generally squalid conditions. The grand jury report said the clinic had blood on the floor, a stench of urine in the air and cat feces on the stairs when agents raided it.
“Semiconscious women scheduled for abortions were moaning in the waiting room or the recovery room, where they sat on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets,” the report said.
Confusion was a standard reaction to the conditions, women said in interviews last week, but many of the patients were young and lacked confidence and simply sat in silence.
“It was the first time for me, and I didn’t know if that’s how women usually are,” said a young woman who had an abortion at the clinic in 1999 shortly after graduating from college.
The clinic had as little regard for the patients’ dignity as it had for their safety. The doctor would arrive late, often after 8 p.m., leaving the untrained staff, including Dr. Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist, to sedate the women and administer labor-inducing drugs, the report said.
If labor began, the woman was asked to sit on a toilet, and the fetus would drop. It would be fished out later so as not to clog the plumbing, the report said. The remains of 45 fetuses were found at the clinic during the raid, according to the report. Some were stored in the staff’s refrigerator.
Ms. Thomas remembers waking up, soaked in her own blood and feeling scared. People were moving around her, trying to put her in an ambulance. Her uterus had been punctured. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was given a partial hysterectomy.
“When I woke up I thought, ‘I might die today,’ ” Ms. Thomas said. Dr. Gosnell offered her $500, she said, possibly in an effort to avert a lawsuit. She had paid $800 for the abortion.
Complaints against Dr. Gosnell date back to 1983, according to the grand jury report, but none moved state regulators to action. Some malpractice suits produced settlements that were paid by Dr. Gosnell’s insurance company, including nearly $1 million paid to the family of Semika Shaw, a 22-year-old mother of two who died from an infection in 2002 after an abortion at the clinic.
The report details a sweeping pattern of negligence, with no inspector stepping foot inside the clinic for more than 16 years. Even the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a Bhutanese refugee who died after a procedure in 2009, was ignored.
Janice Staloski, a Health Department official, declined to investigate the death, saying the department had no authority to do so, the report said. The department’s chief counsel, Christine Dutton, defended the agency’s actions to the grand jury, stating bluntly, “People die.”
Ms. Thomas tries to forget what happened. She felt helpless and disposable in Dr. Gosnell’s clinic, and she wants him to feel the same. She recalls him joking with her when she lay down on the operating table. “You’ll be fine,” he told her. “This is just like a walk in the park.”
Jon Hurdle contributed reporting from Philadelphia, and Kitty Bennet contributed research from New York.
A version of this article appeared in print on January 23, 2011, on page A25 of the New York edition..
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WWWTTTFFF?????
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DEATH'S DOLLARS: The abortionist, accused of murders, made at least $1.8M a year. He says he's broke. Where did it all go?
February 07, 2011|By STEPHANIE FARR, farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225
HOW MANY severed baby spines does it take to pay for a $984,000 shore house?
How many severed infant feet is a boat worth?
And what part of Kermit Gosnell's clinic paid to keep his mistress, 41 years younger, on the payroll?
As investigators and civil attorneys build their case against Gosnell, charged last month with killing seven babies and a woman at his hellish West Philly clinic, a larger question looms:
What did he do with the money?
According to the grand jury's report, it's estimated that Gosnell, 69, made almost $1.8 million each year in abortions alone - and most of it was cash from desperate, poor women.
That figure does not account for any of the money he took in from allegedly selling illegal prescriptions to drug addicts in his community, including his notable distinction of being one of the top three prescribers of OxyContin in Pennsylvania, something federal authorities continue to investigate.
But when brought before a judge Friday to explain why he and his wife, Pearl, had not hired attorneys, Gosnell claimed to be broke.
The judge didn't buy it and refused to appoint public defenders for the couple. They have until Wednesday to hire a lawyer.
Just where all the blood and drug money went is still unknown, according to Sol Weiss, senior partner at Anapol Schwartz, the firm representing the family of Karnamaya Mongar, the patient whom Gosnell is accused of murdering.
"You just don't do the things he did unless you're motivated totally by greed," Weiss said. "We're doing our own investigation into the money, but we don't have any answers right now. I don't think anybody does."
Joanne Pescatore and Christine Wechsler, the assistant district attorneys prosecuting the case, agreed.
"The money's unaccounted for," Pescatore said. "The only thing we know about is the money taken out of the house."
When investigators searched Gosnell's massive, three-story brick home at 32nd Street and Mantua Avenue, they discovered $240,000 in cash and a gun in a filing cabinet in his 12-year-old daughter's bedroom, according to the grand jury report.
A bayside house and more
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Geeze. What an animal.
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"served mostly low-income minority women"
Sounds like he should be getting some sort of a trophy for improving society and reducing long-term state social spending?
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Good.
Doctor found guilty of first-degree murder in Philadelphia abortion case
From Sarah Hoye and Sunny Hostin, CNN
updated 6:19 PM EDT, Mon May 13, 2013
Philadelphia (CNN) -- A Philadelphia abortion provider who killed babies by cutting their spinal cords with scissors was found guilty of first-degree murder on Monday.
The conviction on three counts of first-degree murder means Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, could be sentenced to death.
Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore sobbed after the verdict in the high-profile case was announced. Gosnell appeared shocked. He let out a sigh and shook his head back and forth.
Defense attorney Jack McMahon told CNN it's too soon to tell whether he will appeal the conviction.
Prosecutor was sobbing during verdict
Doctor's clinic called 'house of horrors' "We were disappointed. We put on a vigorous defense. We think it went well for us in the courtroom," he said. "But the jury spoke, and we respect the jury's verdict."
Gosnell also was accused in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, who died of an anesthetic overdose during a second-trimester abortion at his West Philadelphia clinic. In that case, the jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Gosnell, who is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist, was also found guilty of 21 counts of abortion of the unborn, 24 weeks or older.
In Pennsylvania, abortions past 24 weeks are illegal unless the health of the mother is at stake.
Abortion doctor case triggers painful memories for ex-patient
The case next moves to the penalty phase, when jurors will weigh whether to give Gosnell a death sentence. It's possible the doctor will testify, said William Brennan, an attorney who represented Gosnell earlier in the case.
"I would think there would be a lot of mitigation in this case and I think probably, and this is a guess, but probably at that time the jury would hear from Dr. Gosnell," he said.
Earlier Monday, the jury, after deliberating for two weeks, said it was hung on two counts, and the judge instructed them to continue trying to reach a verdict on them.
Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart also told jurors that their progress showed they were "considering the evidence seriously."
Gosnell's co-defendant, Eileen O'Neill, 56, was found guilty of conspiracy to operate a corrupt organization and two counts of theft by deception for operating without a license to practice medicine. O'Neill, a medical school graduate, was not charged with performing illegal abortions.
Both pleaded not guilty.
Eight people involved in Gosnell's clinic, called the Women's Medical Society, have pleaded guilty to various charges, including four to murder.
The grand jury report from 2011 says the "people who ran this sham medical practice included no doctors other than Gosnell himself, and not even a single nurse," yet they still made diagnoses, performed procedures and administered drugs.
McMahon, in an impassioned, 2½-hour closing argument, said that none of the infants was killed; rather, he said, they were already dead as a result of Gosnell administering the drug Digoxin, which can cause abortion.
Gosnell also was accused of reusing unsanitary instruments; performing procedures in filthy rooms, including some in which litter boxes and animals allegedly were present at the time; and allowing unlicensed employees -- including a teenage high school student -- to perform operations and administer anesthesia.
The remains of aborted fetuses were stored in water jugs, pet food containers and a freezer at the clinic, the city's chief medical examiner Sam Gulino testified.
Former employee Kareema Cross said Gosnell regularly performed illegal late-term abortions that he routinely recorded as "24.5 weeks."
McMahon, who called no witnesses, accused prosecutors of "the most extraordinary hype and exaggeration in the history of the criminal justice system," even adding that they are "elitist" and "racist."
Gosnell has been accused by authorities of preying on low-income, minority women. McMahon argued that Gosnell offered access to health care for people who were poor and without health insurance.
During his closing remarks, Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron turned to Gosnell and yelled, "Are you human?"
Gosnell smirked at Cameron without speaking. Cameron then continued, declaring, "It's time for us to extinguish the fire he created."
The doctor was first charged in January 2011.
The case has drawn national attention and sharp criticism from anti-abortion activists.
But that doesn't mean it sets a precedent, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said.
"The testimony in this case was so graphic and so horrific. It was described literally as a house of horrors taking place in this Philadelphia clinic," Callan said. "So I think that most objective observers will say that ultimately this will be an isolated case, hopefully, and that it's simply a case where prosecutors had to act. It had nothing to do with being pro- or anti-abortion."
After Monday's verdict, the leader of one anti-abortion group said justice had been served.
"Even as we celebrate this verdict, we honor and mourn as well those among our nation's weakest children who did not receive 'their day in court' -- and we must remember that Gosnell is not an outlier within the abortion industry," Lila Rose, president of Live Action, said in a written statement. "We cannot allow these 'guilty' verdicts, welcome as they are, to make us complacent when it comes to the continuing abuses happening even now in abortion facilities throughout our nation."
More restrictions on abortions will lead to more cases like the Women's Medical Society, not fewer, abortion rights advocates argue.
"We thought we had said goodbye to back-alley abortionists," said Jessica Arons, head of the Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress.
"Legal access to abortion helps counteract "predators" who "prey on vulnerable women," Arons said.
"It's not that we need more laws or stricter laws," she said. "Pennsylvania just didn't do its job in enforcing the laws against him earlier."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/justice/pennsylvania-abortion-doctor-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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this asshole needs the chair
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Convicted Pennsylvania abortion doctor gets life in prison
Published May 14, 2013
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his grimy clinic agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal and faces life in prison but will be spared a death sentence.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors.
In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation's abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by "snipping" their spines, as he referred to it.
Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell's own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.
Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon said before the sentencing deal that his client's bid for acquittal was a battle.
"The media has been overwhelmingly against him," McMahon said. "But I think the jury listened to the evidence ... and they found what they found."
The gruesome details of Gosnell's operation came out more than two years ago during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell's clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.
Prosecution experts said one of the babies was nearly 30 weeks along when the abortion took place, and was so big that Gosnell allegedly joked the baby could "walk to the bus." A second baby was said to be alive for about 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped the neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee severed the spinal cord, according to testimony.
A fourth baby let out a whimper before Gosnell cut the neck, prosecutors alleged. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby's death, the only one of the four in which no one testified to seeing the baby killed.
Gosnell's attorney argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms.
Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell's facility was raided. In the scandal's aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.
Partisans on both sides of the nation's polarized abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate the disturbing reality of abortion.
"This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about," said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion "once the unborn child can feel pain."
Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.
"Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let's make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care," said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
During the trial, Gosnell proved a solitary figure from beginning to end, with no friends or relatives in the courtroom, despite the fact he's been married three times and has six children, nearly all of them adults.
Gosnell did not testify, and called no witnesses in his defense. But McMahon branded prosecutors "elitist" and "racist" for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.
"I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community," Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. "I believe in the long term I will be vindicated."
Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania's abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.
The defense also contended that the 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications and did not amount to murder, as prosecutors charged.
Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the woman's family, said he now hopes to bring "some sense of justice and quiet to this family that's been through so much."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/14/convicted-pennsylvania-abortion-doctor-gets-life-in-prison/