According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, a Philadelphia abortion clinic would have been shut down a long time ago, had it not been for extraordinary failures by state regulators.
A doctor at the clinic was arraigned today on eight counts of murder in the deaths of seven babies and one patient. Nine employees have also been charged. Prosecutors say Dr. Kermit Gosnell ran a filthy abortion mill where babies were delivered alive and then killed with scissors.
The grand jury’s report says failures by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other agencies allowed the clinic to operate for decades. The report says there were baby body parts on the shelves. It says a 15-year-old high school student administered intravenous anesthesia. And it says Gosnell’s wife, a cosmetologist, performed late-term procedures.
Most of the patients at the clinic were poor minority women, including the woman who prosecutors say died there after being given too much Demerol and other drugs.
The report quotes the state Health Department’s chief counsel as saying there was nothing suspicious about the woman’s death — because “people die.”
This is a sad story, but it makes me wonder if there are other “clinics” like this around the country. It seems like this man was targeting poor women, who felt they had no other choice but abortion. Abortion is a hot topic and highly debated, but the point in this situation is that it is illegal to perform an abortion when the baby is over 24 weeks along. There was a 15 year old administering anesthesia on these women who came in for abortions. There were cat feces on the stairs. This man deserves to pay for his crimes and anyone who helped him deserves the same.
What do you think of this story? Does it make you wary of smaller, independent doctor’s offices?
