In recognition of the national release of Gosnell – the Movie chronicling the discovery, prosecution, and incarceration of America’s biggest serial killer, this is the second article reposted which was originally published May 10, 2013 on culturewarror.net.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell was the west Philadelphia abortionist whose clinic was described in a 2011 Grand Jury report as a “house of horrors.”

The 281-page report described how Gosnell and his staff regularly delivered full-term babies whom they then killed by “snipping” their spinal cords with scissors. Hundreds of infants were dispatched in this way. Despite numerous complaints to the state health department about the clinic conditions, Gosnell’s filthy abortion mill went without an inspection for sixteen years.[1]

Following the Grand Jury’s findings, Gosnell was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder (reduced to 4 counts at trial) and one count of third-degree murder, as well as infanticide (dismissed at trial). The non-murder charges included 24 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s Abortion Act by performing illegal third-trimester abortions, 227 counts of violating a 24-hour waiting-period requirement, failing to counsel patients, and racketeering. On May 13, 2013, (three days after “Oh!? It’s only a matter of sanitation and not murder” was published), Gosnell was given three life sentences without possibility of parole.

Along the way, the story became about more than Gosnell himself. It became about the media blackout of his trial. A famous photo of the courtroom was circulated that showed rows of seats reserved for the press, empty. Apparently, the trial of an abortionist who had murdered born-alive infants wasn’t a story newsrooms wanted to cover—at least until they were guilted into it. All of this is why this movie is so important. And wait till you hear how it was funded. Almost 30,000 people donated to the Indiegogo campaign to make the film. In total, the producers raised over $2.3 million, making it the most successful campaign in Indiegogo’s history.

But, the project has faced serious opposition. The film’s distributors faced a libel lawsuit in 2015 that delayed its release for three years. Finally, five years after Gosnell was sentenced, the movie is hitting theaters.[2]

This article is also written in memory of the nameless millions of aborted babies known only to God.

Oh!? It’s a matter of sanitation and not murder – May 10, 2013

You may have followed the information (if you were able to find it in main stream media) flowing from the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion clinic operator accused of murdering a woman and seven babies born alive. I first wrote about Gosnell and Planned Parenthood on April 12, 2013 (See Archives: “Postcard from Hell”[3]). In that article I referred to the testimony of Alisa LaPolt Snow, the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates lobbyist, regarding a bill before the Florida legislature that would require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion. In response to being asked what would Planned Parenthood do if a live baby were born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, Snow replied, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”[4] With regard to her callus comment I said that, “Apart from lack of sanitation and improper licensing, Planned Parenthood would have little to no issues with Dr. Gosnell’s methods and decision-making process with regard to killing a live baby.” [emphasis added]

Referring to the heart-breaking and disturbing facts that occurred at the Philadelphia abortion clinic, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) attempted to have the Senate pass a sense of the Senate resolution that would have condemned illegal abortion practices. The resolution stated:

Congress has the responsibility to investigate and conduct hearings on abortions performed near, at, or after viability in the United States, public policies regarding such, and evaluate the extent to which such abortions involve violations of the natural right to life of infants who are born alive or are capable of being born alive, and therefore are entitled to equal protection under the law.[5]

Given the facts coming out of the Philadelphia trial, it would appear that no reasonable person could object to Senator Lee’s resolution. However, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have found a way. A favorite ploy of Congressional Democrats is to resort to obfuscation in blocking solutions for problems when those solutions are in conflict with their interests and agenda and those of their allies. The issue is effectively muddled by enlarging the problem and then seeking “comprehensive” solutions instead of addressing the pressing issue of the moment. One example of this Democratic obfuscation is illegal immigration in which securing America’s borders is ignored or marginalized in favor of making it a part of a larger solution in dealing with “undocumented aliens.”[6]

Senator Blumenthal employed this tactic to defeat Senator Lee’s resolution and propose his own resolution which states that all “incidents of abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices should be condemned and prevented and the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”[7]

Senator Lee sees clearly that the problem is immediate and of such compelling nature as to require Congressional action…it is about murdering born alive babies. But Notice Blumenthal’s subtle footwork. For the Senator, it is not about murder but “abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices.” Yes, murder is abusive and illegal, but it can never be labeled a health care practice. It appears that Congressional Democrats, like their ally Planned Parenthood, cannot distinguish between abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices and murder of born alive babies. While Congressional Democrats obfuscate and dither, little human beings are being killed.

Triage is a medical term. It means the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims to reflect the urgency of the patient’s need in order to maximize the number of survivors. The culture wars rage and both born and unborn babies are battle victims dying in America’s abortion mills. Senator Lee’s proposal pointed to the urgency of the need in order to maximize the number of survivors. But for Congressional Democrats, murdering born alive babies does not rise to the level requiring triage. It is part of a larger problem that must be investigated, mulled, discussed, considered…ad infinitum. Meanwhile, millions of little babies will never see their first birthday.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] John Stonestreet, “Gosnell – The Movie,” Breakpoint Daily from the Colson Center, October 10, 2018. https://mail.yahoo.com/d/search/keyword=gosnell/messages/70843 (accessed 10-12-18).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Larry G. Johnson, “Oh!? It’s a matter of sanitation and not murder,” culturewarrior.net, May 10, 2013. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2013/04/12/postcard-from-hell/
[4] John McCormack, “Video: Planned Parenthood Official Argues for Right to Post-Birth Abortion,” Weekly Standard.com. https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-mccormack/video-planned-parenthood-official-argues-for-right-to-post-birth-abortion (accessed October 13, 2018). [The original source was no longer available.]
[5] Dr. Susan Berry, “Sen. Mike Lee resolves to address “Gosnell-type” abortion crime,” Brietbart News, May 6, 2013 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/06/Sen-Mike-Lee-Resolves-To-Address-Gosnell-Type-Abortion-Crime (accessed May 10, 2013).
[6] “Blumenthal Delivers Floor Speech Objecting To Senator Lee’s Abortion Resolution, Introduces Broader Resolution Condemning Criminal Acts And Malpractice In All Health Care Settings” Richard Blumenthal, United States Senator – Connecticut, May 8, 2013.
http://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-delivers-floor-speech-objecting-to-senator-lees-abortion-resolution-introduces-broader-resolution-condemning-criminal-acts-and-malpractice-in-all-health-care-settings (accessed May 10, 2013).
[7] Ibid.

In recognition of the national release of Gosnell – the Movie chronicling the discovery, prosecution, and incarceration of America’s biggest serial killer, the article posted April 12, 2013 on culturewarror.net is being posted again.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell was the west Philadelphia abortionist whose clinic was described in a 2011 Grand Jury report as a “house of horrors.”

The 281-page report described how Gosnell and his staff regularly delivered full-term babies whom they then killed by “snipping” their spinal cords with scissors. Hundreds of infants were dispatched in this way. Despite numerous complaints to the state health department about the clinic conditions, Gosnell’s filthy abortion mill went without an inspection for sixteen years.[1]

Following the Grand Jury’s findings, Gosnell was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder (reduced to 4 counts at trial) and one count of third-degree murder, as well as infanticide (dismissed at trial). The non-murder charges included 24 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s Abortion Act by performing illegal third-trimester abortions, 227 counts of violating a 24-hour waiting-period requirement, failing to counsel patients, and racketeering. On May 13, 2013, thirty-one days after the following article was written, Gosnell was given three life sentences without possibility of parole.

Along the way, the story became about more than Gosnell himself. It became about the media blackout of his trial. A famous photo of the courtroom was circulated that showed rows of seats reserved for the press, empty. Apparently, the trial of an abortionist who had murdered born-alive infants wasn’t a story newsrooms wanted to cover—at least until they were guilted into it. All of this is why this movie is so important. And wait till you hear how it was funded. Almost 30,000 people donated to the Indiegogo campaign to make the film. In total, the producers raised over $2.3 million, making it the most successful campaign in Indiegogo’s history.

But, the project has faced serious opposition. The film’s distributors faced a libel lawsuit in 2015 that delayed its release for three years. Finally, five years after Gosnell was sentenced, the movie is hitting theaters.[2]

This article is also written in memory of the nameless millions of aborted babies known only to God.

Postcard from Hell – April 12, 2013

“It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place…I felt like a fireman in hell. I couldn’t put out all the fires.” [emphasis added] These are the words of Steven Massof, one of the employees in an abortion clinic operated by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, describing the busy times when the women were given drugs to induce contractions all at once. Gosnell is on trial this week for killing seven children and a young mother in a filthy, blood-splattered clinic near Philadelphia.[3]

The babies had the misfortune to be born live in Gosnell’s clinic staffed in part by teenagers posing as licensed anesthetists. The bodies of the tiny victims were stored in a freezer in the basement of the clinic. Massof admitted that killing babies born alive was standard procedure at the clinic. He estimated that at least 100 babies were born alive in the clinic and had their necks snipped, but the beheadings were so routine that no one could determine the exact number.[4]

Generally, such stories of horrific tragedies would be meat for the media grinder. However, you probably have not heard much if any reports from the great majority of news media. But thanks to the Family Research Council and other conservative organizations and leaders, the story which the media have ignored or censored is gaining some attention.

Sherry West was another long-time employee of the clinic. She testified that she called the babies specimens “because it was easier to deal with mentally.” West recalled one incident of a “screaming baby that really freaked me out…I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien.” She estimated the baby to have been between 18 and 24 inches long, one of the largest she had seen during abortion procedures at the Women’s Medical Society clinic operated by Dr. Gosnell at that time.[5]

Perhaps you will recall President Clinton’s statement that abortions in America should be “safe, legal, and rare.” But his statement is just political sop to pacify the squeamish. The same sop to hide abortion’s grisly reality was used by Alisa LaPolt Snow, the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates lobbyist, in her testimony regarding a bill before the Florida legislature that would require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion. In response to being asked what would Planned Parenthood do if a live baby were born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, Snow replied, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”[6]

Effectively, Planned Parenthood would leave the life or death decisions to the Dr. Gosnells of the world with regard to babies born alive after a botched abortion. Certainly the mother is in no emotional or physical shape to make a thoughtful and rational decision, and it is extremely unlikely that the doctor would consult the mother’s family (generally not present anyway) as the baby is lying on the table and struggling for life. Apart from lack of sanitation and improper licensing, Planned Parenthood would have little to no issues with Dr. Gosnell’s methods and decision-making process with regard to killing a live baby.

After January 22, 1973, the lives of unborn babies were no longer sacrosanct in America but placed in the hands of the deciders following the dictates of man’s law. It is estimated that over fifty two million abortions have fallen victim to man’s law in America from January 1973 through the end of 2008. These estimates came from direct surveys of abortionists by the Guttmacher Institute, once a research affiliate of Planned Parenthood. The number of abortions per day, if an average were calculated for the entire thirty-six year period, is over 3,900. This average number of abortions per day exceeds by over one thousand the number of lives lost in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.[7]

Numbers and statistics are sterile things and do not convey the horror of a single abortion as shown above. Euphemisms, platitudes, and legal arguments about rights, privacy, and choice attempt to soften the picture or divert our attention from the horror surrounding the abortion of an unborn child.

Legalized abortion was the wedge used to split open the historic Western commitment to the dignity of human life.[8] Now the humanist defenders of abortion continue attempts to drive the wedge deeper by sanctioning the taking of innocent life which effectively dispenses with concerns as to when human life begins. Thus, the abortionists’ coveted right of choice is attempting to move across the line from abortion to infanticide. Doubters only need to listen to the testimony of Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Alisa LaPolt Snow.

Many scientists and academics would not stop at aborting babies born alive as the result of a botched abortion. Some such as Francis Crick, Nobel Prize winner for discovering the double helix in DNA, support screening newborns. For Crick, those that fail to meet certain health standards would be euthanized. Peter Singer, Princeton’s DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, believes that parents ought to be allowed to kill their disabled children. His reasoning is “…that they are ‘nonpersons’ until they are rational and self-conscious.” Singer extends his reasoning to the “…killing of incompetent persons of any age if their families decide their lives are ‘not worth living’.” Some would scoff that Crick’s and Singer’s opinions are extreme and would never gain cultural acceptance. However, legalized abortion in America was also once thought extreme by most Americans.[9]

Under the aegis of a majority of nine people on the United States Supreme Court, abortion became a choice in 1973, and unborn babies suddenly became mere fetal tissue with potentiality for human life. Contrast the Supreme Court’s decision and humanism’s convoluted defenses of abortion through fictitious rights and irrational moralizing about choice with the words of the Psalmist:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book! [Psalm 139:13-16. Living Bible]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] John Stonestreet, “Gosnell – The Movie,” Breakpoint Daily from the Colson Center, October 10, 2018. https://mail.yahoo.com/d/search/keyword=gosnell/messages/70843 (accessed 10-12-18).
[2] Ibid.
[3] “At Gosnell trial, Del. woman testifies scene ‘freaked me out,” delawareonline.com, April 9, 2013. http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130409/NEWS/304070067/ (accessed April 10, 2013). [The archives of this source as if the date of republication of this article are presently accessible only with a paid subscription.]
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] John McCormack,” Video: Planned Parenthood Official Argues for Right to Post-Birth Abortion,” Weekly Standard.com. https://www.weeklystandard.com/john-mccormack/video-planned-parenthood-official-argues-for-right-to-post-birth-abortion (accessed October 13, 2018).
[7] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism and Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2011), p. 344.
[8] Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
1999), p 120.
[9] Johnson, Ye shall be as gods, pp. 350-351.