As I See It: Gosnell Trial Comes too Late for Many Women

Accused Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, AP photo

By Maria Gallagher

His alleged crimes went undetected for years. He was the go-to guy in the neighborhood for Oxycontin and other addictive drugs—an illegal business which investigators say brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

And he was also known as the doc to go to for extremely late, late-term abortions (more than 24 weeks' gestation). At times, those "late-term abortions" turned into the killing of live infants, according to a grand jury report that reads like the script from a horror movie.

When live babies were delivered, he allegedly stuck scissors in the back of the babies' necks and severed the spinal cords, killing them. The grand jury estimates that Gosnell engaged in hundreds of such killings, but charges could be brought in only a handful of cases, because he conveniently destroyed files to cover his tracks. The suspect, who, if convicted, might be described as the John Wayne Gacy of West Philadelphia, cleverly hid evidence—but not all of it.
Forgive the graphic nature of the following description, but it must be included to show the depravity behind Gosnell's abortion center walls: A search team found the parts of dead babies nearly everywhere—in the refrigerator, in the freezer, and in containers which would ordinarily carry milk, orange juice, even cat food. And then there were the jars of severed baby feet.

Add to this horror the maiming of grown female patients. The grand jury described him as a "butcher of women." As members of the grand jury declared in their chilling report, "Dr. Gosnell didn't just kill babies. He was also a deadly threat to mothers."

During a debate at a college campus, a representative from Planned Parenthood suggested that I would not know the name of the female patient Gosnell was charged with killing—the supposition being that pro-lifers do not really care about women. Without hesitation, I answered, "Karnamaya Mongar."

She was a 41-year-old refugee from Nepal, according to the grand jury report. After a few hours in this house of horrors, she stopped breathing. Gosnell could not revive her because his defibrillator was broken. When the paramedics finally arrived, the hallways were so cluttered that it took them 20 minutes to get the patient out of the building.

She died.

How many other women died as a result of Gosnell's lethal form of medicine, we'll never know.

Gosnell's case is finally working its way through the Philadelphia justice system, and Pennsylvania now has a law to ensure that abortion facilities follow the safety standards of outpatient surgery centers. But it is too late for the many women who say they suffered as a result of Gosnell's brutal practice.

And what of those babies who were routinely killed at the Women's Medical Society?

No one knows their names.

Maria Gallagher is the legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation in Harrisburg.