With each passing day, the testimony at the trial of Philadelphia abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell gets more gruesome — events which shock the conscience.
From The Daily Mail in Britain:
[Stephen] Massof, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the murder of two newborns at the clinic, revealed Thursday that he witnessed an abortion at 26 weeks – two weeks beyond the 24-week limit in the state. He also claimed he saw about 100 babies born alive and then ‘snipped’ with surgical scissors in the back of the neck, to ensure their ‘demise’….
From the local NBC station:
Sherry West began working at Dr. Gosnell’s clinic in late 2008 after working as a surgical technician at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center…..West testified that once during an abortion procedure, she was very disturbed when a baby made a screeching noise. She said it was not fully-developed and “it sounded like a little alien. It really freaked me out,” West told the courtroom.
From The Daily Mail:
A medical assistant told a jury Tuesday that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies during unorthodox late-term abortions at a West Philadelphia clinic. Adrienne Moton’s testimony as part of her guilty plea to third-degree murder, came in the capital murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the clinic owner, who is on trial in the deaths of a patient and seven babies. Prosecutors accuse him of killing late-term, viable babies after they were delivered alive, in violation of state abortion laws. Gosnell’s lawyer denies the murder charge and disputes that any babies were born alive. He also challenges the gestational age of the aborted fetuses, calling them inexact estimates. Moton, the first employee to testify, sobbed as she recalled taking a cell phone photograph of one baby left in her work area. She thought he could have survived, given his size and pinkish color. She had measured him at nearly 30 weeks. ‘The aunt felt it was just best for her [the mother’s] future,’ Moton testified. Gosnell later joked that the baby was so big he could have walked to the bus stop, she said
From Delaware Online via Hot Air:
And Lynda Williams, 44, of Wilmington, said Gosnell taught her how to flip the body of the baby over and snip its neck with a pair of scissors to ensure “fetal demise.”Williams also testified that she followed Gosnell’s orders one time, when Gosnell was away either running, swimming or working at a clinic in Delaware, and took a baby that was delivered in a toilet and snipped its neck.“It jumped, the arm,” she said, showing the jury by raising her arm.
You will read little of this in the paper of record. The NY Times has run only one story on the case in the last 30 days (h/t @Iowahawkblog).
That story, from March 18, Abortion Doctor’s Murder Trial Opens, focuses almost entirely on the defense’s side of the story, including the race card:
His lawyer, Jack J. McMahon, described Dr. Gosnell as dedicated to treating the poor and accused prosecutors of racism — “a prosecutorial lynching” of his client, who is black.
“It’s an elitist, racist prosecution,” Mr. McMahon said. “This black man is being taken because of who he is and where he works.”
You can read about it at The Washington Post, but only through an opinion piece and reprints of AP stories which focus on the supposed good intentions of Gosnell:
But unlicensed doctor Stephen Massof also thought clinic owner Kermit Gosnell was trying to help vulnerable women seeking abortions. Dr. Gosnell, 72, is on trial for capital murder, charged with killing a woman patient and seven newborns.
“I believe that Dr. Gosnell was honestly trying to help women and protect them from abuse and neglect,” Massof, a prosecution witness, said on cross-examination.
The statement came in questioning about why Gosnell kept fetal samples, including severed feet, in jars at the clinic. Massof said that Gosnell measured the feet to estimate gestational age, which could help confirm or disprove sexual assault allegations. Prosecution experts have said there are no sound medical reasons for an abortion provider to do that, when blood and other samples can be stored.
Kathleen McKinley sums up the horror of the act and the horror of the media non-reaction:
What is mind boggling is that Dr. Gosnell’s hellish corner of Philadelphia wasn’t discovered because someone finally decided to report or inspect his abortion clinic. Federal agents raided Gosnell’s abortion clinic on the suspicion he was distributing prescription drugs illegally.One would think this would generate some interest from the mainstream media, if not for anything but the sensationalism of it (Dr. Gosnell kept severed feet of the aborted babies in jars at the clinic for example), but no, ABC, NBC, And CBS have ignored it.Ignored evil.If you can stomach it, here is a gallery of pictures from the jury report, including the severed feet.
It’s not for nothing that we have reached this point when Planned Parenthood fights laws seeking to protect infants born alive after an abortion procedure:
As Mark Thiessen — the author of the WaPo opinion piece linked above — noted, this is part of a pattern whereby pro-choice groups and supportive media fight every and any attempt to protect infants born alive.
That’s their choice.
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